Minnesota State News

Names to know for the Chicago Bears in this week’s Senior Bowl, including a top edge rusher and a bevy of centers and wide receivers

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 07:02:21 +0000

The quarterback conversation will dominate chatter for the Chicago Bears leading up to the NFL draft in three months, and that ought to be a major focus this week at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.

Even though top prospects such as USC’s Caleb Williams, North Carolina’s Drake Maye, LSU’s Jayden Daniels and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy are not in the game, it will be a chance to get a close look at Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Oregon’s Bo Nix.

Add Tulane’s Michael Pratt, South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler and Notre Dame’s Sam Hartman — who aren’t candidates to be the No. 1 pick — and it would be an intriguing bunch of passers in any draft cycle.

The Bears will be able to see Penix and Nix up close four weeks before the scouting combine, and general manager Ryan Poles likely has a detailed plan to vet all options.

Penix threw for 9,504 yards over the last two seasons at Washington, and teams will have plenty of questions about knee and shoulder injuries that interrupted his first four years at Indiana. Nix also thrived after transferring, passing for 8,101 yards and 74 touchdowns with only 10 interceptions at Oregon the last two years after three up-and-down seasons at Auburn.

The Bears drafted four players who participated in the Senior Bowl last year, all in the first four rounds: right tackle Darnell Wright (first round, 10th pick), cornerback Tyrique Stevenson (second round), defensive tackle Zacch Pickens (third) and running back Roschon Johnson (fourth). They also signed undrafted quarterback Tyson Bagent, who improved his stock with a week in Mobile.

The Senior Bowl was loaded with talent last year, when 36 of the first 100 draft picks participated in the game. Overall, 100 players who were in Mobile were drafted, accounting for 39% of all selections.

While it’s unlikely the first pick in this year’s draft will be in Mobile, you can’t rule out the possibility the ninth pick — which the Bears also own — will be on display.

UCLA edge rusher Laiatu Latu is one of the highest-regarded prospects committed to the Senior Bowl. Latu had 23 1/2 sacks over the last two seasons for the Bruins, and NFL teams will have a chance to see him perform in practice and the game.

They will have a lot of medical questions for Latu that will require due diligence at the combine, as he briefly retired from football with a neck injury after beginning his college career at Washington. Latu proved to be durable at UCLA, though, and for teams comfortable with his health, he could emerge as the top edge rusher in the draft.

That’s certainly a position the Bears need to figure out as they seek a presence opposite Montez Sweat. It’s not a great draft for pass rushers overall, but Alabama’s Chris Braswell, coming off a 10 1/2-sack season, is regarded as a potential Day 2 pick and is playing in the Senior Bowl.

Center figures to be a primary need for the Bears, and there’s an interesting crop of hopefuls. Before we dive into the names, it’s worth wondering what philosophy the Bears will take. If they plan on drafting a quarterback, would they hesitate to have a rookie snapping the ball? Given the option, a lot of teams would prefer a veteran center to aid a rookie quarterback with pre-snap reads and calls.

But if Poles and the coaching staff believe there’s a savvy prospect who can be an asset to a young quarterback — assuming the Bears draft one — perhaps they like the idea of more youth on the line.

In that case, West Virginia’s Zach Frazier, Oregon’s Jackson Powers-Johnson and Duke’s Graham Barton — a left tackle in college who is expected to play center this week — are interesting possibilities. Add Georgia’s Sedrick Van Pran and Wisconsin’s Tanor Bortolini, and there’s no shortage of options.

Top wide receivers rarely head to Mobile, and you won’t see any of the elite prospects such as Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr., LSU’s Malik Nabers or Washington’s Rome Odunze. But it’s not only a top-heavy wide receiver class; there’s also tremendous depth. And that’s where players such as South Carolina’s Xavier Legette, North Carolina’s Tez Walker, Arizona’s Jacob Cowing, Louisville’s Jamari Thrash and Western Kentucky’s Malachi Corley come into play.

The Bears, for the first time in a while, have the No. 1 receiver spot figured out with DJ Moore. With Darnell Mooney coming out of contract, they don’t have a No. 2 and could use some competition for Tyler Scott, who just completed his rookie season. Considering the wealth of options, the draft would seem to make more sense than a splurge in free agency, where proven options will be available.

Free safety looms as a question on defense, and Miami’s Kamren Kinchens will be in the spotlight as a potential late first-round pick. He made 11 interceptions the last two seasons for the Hurricanes, and while there are questions about his consistency, few draft options possess the kind of range he has.

Teams are always seeking talent for the defensive line, and Texas’ Byron Murphy is an undersized player (6-foot-1, 297 pounds) who could be a nice fit for the Bears as a disruptive interior player. He had 15 sacks in three seasons for the Longhorns with 8 1/2 this past season.

It might be more of a want than a need — and the Bears were pleased with the development of 2023 second-round pick Gervon Dexter — but there’s no such thing as too many quality defensive linemen.

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Victim of North Minneapolis shooting ID'd as 47-year-old Robbinsdale man

Sun, 28 Jan 2024 03:19:34 +0000

A 47-year-old Robbinsdale man has been identified as the victim of a North Minneapolis shooting, which officials say stemmed from an altercation.

Minneapolis Police Department officers responded to a shooting on the 2000 block of Washington Avenue North at around 11:50 p.m Wednesday.

Around five minutes later, a man was taken to North Memorial Medical Center with "at least one" life-threatening gunshot wound,” according to MPD. He later died at North Memorial hospital.

MPD stated that "preliminary information indicates that an altercation escalated to gunfire.”

The man has since been identified by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner as Carnell Russell, 47, of Robbinsdale. His cause of death was reported to be a gunshot wound to the chest.

Police scanner account MN Crime reports that the shooting is believed to have happened in the vicinity of Cliff N' Norm's Bar. The medical examiner also listed the bar’s address as the location of Russell’s injury.

No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting.

Two children found safe at scene of triple homicide in Coon Rapids

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 23:48:36 +0000

A suspect was in custody, but an official did not offer a preliminary motive for the killings.

Minneapolis makes Top 50 ranking... of worst cities for bed bugs

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 23:35:26 +0000

When they say "don't let the bed bugs bite" in Minneapolis, they meant it.

That's because the city has earned the dubious honor of making Orkin's annual "Top 50 Bed Bug Cities" list, released this past week.

The ranking is based on treatment data from the metro areas where Orkin performed the most bed bug exterminations from Dec. 1, 2022 to Nov. 30, 2023, the pest control company says. The list takes into account both residential and commercial infestations.

Coming in at #47 (below Orlando, Florida, and above Oklahoma City), this is Minneapolis' first time on the list.

As bruising as that might be for proud Minneapolitans, other major U.S. cities got even worse news from the Orkin ranking. Chicago came in at #1 for the fourth straight year in a row, while New York in Philadelphia came in second and third place, respectively.

But Orkin says Greensboro, North Carolina saw the largest jump this year, climbing a whopping 25 spots into the Top 20. It wasn't the only city to move up (or down, depending on your viewpoint) in this year's rankings; Milwaukee jumped up fifteen spots to 25th place, and Tampa came in at #31, ten spots higher than last year.

Orkin says travel is a major factor in bed bug infestations, and says consumers should thoroughly check their hotel rooms for signs of infestation — because the minuscule menaces can cling to luggage, purses and other belongs, making it easy for them to travel home with their victims.

The company advises looking for signs of infestation such as "tiny, ink-colored stains on mattress seams, in soft furniture and behind headboards."

Check out more tips for spotting and dealing with bed bugs in your home.

Twins' Royce Lewis appears ready for the next step to stardom

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 23:34:24 +0000

Royce Lewis' heroics over limited appearances in 2023 have raised expectations for what to expect from him over a full season.

Person rescued from St. Paul house fire dies of injuries days later

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 22:56:05 +0000

The person who was rescued from a house fire in St. Paul's Macalester-Groveland neighborhood this week has died.

The fire happened Tuesday morning at a residence on the 1600 block of Juliet Ave., where firefighters quickly located a single occupant and pulled them to safety.

The person was taken to a hospital for treatment, and though the fire was "quickly controlled," the St. Paul Fire Department announced Saturday that they'd learned the victim had died of their injuries.

According to a news release, the fire — which has been ruled accidental — started in the kitchen.

"Cooking is the leading cause of fires in both Minnesota and the United States," the department added.

The name and age of the victim have not been disclosed. Their death marks St. Paul's fifth fire fatality of 2024, following the deaths of four children in the city's North End earlier this month.

Amazon to build new facility in Duluth following purchase of 18-acre lot

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 22:18:11 +0000

The mysterious buyer of that industrial property sold in Duluth last year? None other than online retail giant Amazon.

Both the company and the city have confirmed that Amazon is indeed developing the site — located at 2302 Commonwealth Ave. and known as Atlas Industrial Park — though officials are tight-lipped on what exactly the new building will be.

Sale of the 18+ acre property was approved by the Duluth City Council in July, with the price tag coming in at around $94,000, Duluth News Tribune reported at the time.

The site was purchased on behalf of a "future occupant" by Minneapolis-based construction firm Ryan Companies, which at time of purchase was not at liberty to reveal the identity of the buyer due to a non-disclosure agreement, the Duluth News Tribune noted.

According to the Star Tribune, there was "active construction" at the site as of Friday, with "no trespassing" signs posted by Ryan Companies.

The paper notes that the project is expected to "create at last five jobs," per city records.

Kara Hille, a Minneapolis-based Amazon public relations official, told WDIO that "plans for this piece of property are in the very early stages," and though no details were given, the company looks forward to "sharing more in the future."

However, there are multiple online job postings for Amazon warehouse workers in Duluth.

Amazon has at least 16 facilities around Minnesota.

Lights, camera, action! Murder mystery 'Unholy Communion' filming in St. Paul

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 18:37:55 +0000

The movie gods have smiled on Minnesota again, because filming for a murder mystery is now underway in St. Paul — except this time, it's a completely homegrown effort.

"Unholy Communion" is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Thomas Rumreich, an 81-year-old Scandia resident, retired dentist and first-time novelist.

And the movie's leading men? Minnesotans, too. It stars Minneapolis native Vincent Kartheiser (who shot to fame playing Pete Campbell in the AMC hit "Mad Men") and Adam Bartley, an Eden Prairie High School graduate known for his stints on "NCIS: Los Angeles" and "Longmire" as well as guest spots on numerous other shows, including NBC's "This Is Us."

Bartley shared his enthusiasm for the project in a Thursday Instagram post, saying he's "thrilled to be making a film back in my hometown surrounded by family" — something he describes as a "first" in his career:

View the original article to see embedded media.

So what is "Unholy Communion" about? Here's what Amazon has to say about the source material's plot:

"When Washington County investigator Chris Majek is called to the scene of a retired priest's horrific murder, little does he know the emotional chasm it will open. And little does he know that this murder is a portend [sic] of more to come."

As author Rumreich tells the Pioneer Press, the novel stems from his experiences as a college student at St. John’s University, where he was sexually abused by a priest in the early 1960s.

“It made me furious the Catholic Church was not willing to come forward and admit these things were going on and then not doing something about it,” he told the paper, which notes that after "a fair amount of counseling,” Rumerich was finally able to sat down in 2015 to write the story that had been brewing at the back of his mind for decades.

The novel debuted in 2020, and according to Amazon, profits from the book will be donated to the Survivor's Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

Record ocean temps likely cause of Minnesota's weird non-winter

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 18:00:00 +0000

Ocean temperatures, which reached record highs for the sixth straight year, are supercharging weather around the globe.

'Vehicle prowler' arrested after series of Duluth area break-ins

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:10:54 +0000

Officials say they’ve arrested a suspect in connection with multiple break-ins by a "vehicle prowler" in and around Duluth.

On Friday, the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office announced that investigators and Duluth police had arrested a 35-year-old man they say was responsible for break-ins throughout Duluth and in Midway Township.

Many of the break-ins occurred in trailhead parking lots on Becks Road, according to the sheriff’s office.

The suspect was booked at St. Louis County Jail on felony domestic assault and 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct charges from an unrelated incident.

Items stolen during the break-ins were found in the suspect’s vehicle during a search.

The St. Louis County Attorney's Office will request new charges when an investigation has been completed, the sheriff’s office says.

View the original article to see embedded media.

Minneapolis schools added more librarians. Now books are flying off the shelves

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 16:00:00 +0000

This year, the district fulfilled its promise to staff at least a half-time librarian at each school.

Finalists for the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 15:55:44 +0000

Finalists for the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards were announced Saturday by Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, sponsored by Education Minnesota. (* represents a Minnesota-based publisher)

Here are the finalists:

Children’s literature

“Beneath” by Cori Doerrfeld (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers/Hachette Book Group)

“Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers?” by Junauda Petrus; illustrations by Kristen Uroda (Dutton Children’s Books/ Penguin Random House)

“Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons” by Laura Purdie Salas; illustrations by Alexandria Neonakis (Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing Group)*

“Looking For Happy” by Ty Chapman; illustrations by Keenon Ferrell (Beaming Books/1517 Media)*

General nonfiction

“The Greatest Summer in Baseball History: How the ‘73 Season Changed Us Forever” by John Rosengren (Sourcebooks)

“Lessons on the Road to Peace” by John Noltner (self-published)

“The Needle and the Lens: Pop Goes to the Movies from Rock ‘n’ Roll to Synthwave” by Nate Patrin (University of Minnesota Press)*

“Smoke on the Waterfront: The Northern Waters Smokehaus Cookbook” by Ned Netzel, Nic Peloquin, Mary K. Tennis, Greg Conley & Eric Goerdt; photographs by Jacob Swanson, Flo, Stephen Pestalozzi, & Zac Bentz (University of Minnesota Press)*

Genre fiction

“Citadel” by C.M. Alongi (Blackstone Publishing)

“Ink Blood Sister Scribe” by Emma Törzs (William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers)

“Liberty’s Daughter” by Naomi Kritzer (Fairwood Press)

“Native Love Jams” by Tashia Hart (self-published)

Memoir & creative nonfiction

“The Crystal Gavel: How I Put My Heart into the Body of Law” by Sue Cochrane (Wise Ink Media)*

“Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History” by Emily Strasser (University Press of Kentucky)

“In the Company of Grace: A Veterinarian’s Memoir of Trauma and Healing” by Jody Lulich (University Minnesota Press)*

“Trauma Sponges: Dispatches from the Scarred Heart of Emergency Response” by Jeremy Norton (University of Minnesota Press)*

Middle-grade literature

“Dear Brother” by Alison McGhee; illustrations by Tuan Nini (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Simon & Schuster)

“The Kitchen Pantry Scientist: Ecology for Kids” by Liz Lee Heinecke (Quarry Books/The Quarto Group)

“The Puppets of Spelhorst” by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)

“Shannon in the Spotlight” by Kalena Miller (Delacorte Press/Penguin Random House)

Emilie Buchwald Award for Minnesota Nonfiction

“Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence” by Keith Ellison (Twelve Books/Hachette Book Group)

“Making the Carry: The Lives of John and Tchi-Ki-Wis Linklater” by Timothy Cochrane (University of Minnesota Press)*

“Minescapes: Reclaiming Minnesota’s Mined Lands” by Pete Kero (Minnesota Historical Society Press)*

“Winter’s Song: A Hymn to the North” by TD Mischke (Skywater Publishing Cooperative)*

Novel & short story

“Brotherless Night” by V.V. Ganeshananthan (Random House/Penguin Random House)

“A Council of Dolls” by Mona Susan Power (Mariner Books/HarperCollins Publishers)

“Power and Light” by Will Weaver (Calumet Editions)*

“The Sky Vault” by Benjamin Percy (William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers)

Poetry

“The Fight” by Jennifer Manthey (Trio House Press)*

“Meltwater” by Claire Wahmanholm (Milkweed Editions)*

“Songs, Blood Deep” by Gwen Nell Westerman (Holy Cow! Press)*

“Wail Song: or wading in the water at the end of the world” by Chaun Webster (Black Ocean)

Young Adult Literature

“The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be” by Shannon Gibney (Dutton Books/Penguin Random House)

“Just Do This One Thing for Me” by Laura Zimmermann (Dutton Books/Penguin Random House)

“Reimagining Police: The Future of Public Safety” by Artika Tyner (Twenty-First Century Books/Lerner Publishing Group)*

“The Roof Over Our Heads” by Nicole Kronzer (Amulet Books/Abrams Books)

Award winners will be announced at the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony on May 7 at Ordway Center for Performing Arts in downtown St. Paul. The Book Artist Award, Hognander Minnesota History Award and Kay Sexton Award will also be presented that evening. Tickets are $22 and will be available at thefriends.org/mnba beginning Monday, Jan. 29. The preface begins at 6 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony at 7:30 p.m. There will be an option to access the livestream of the ceremony free.

‘Keeping the theater as a place where real conversations can happen’: A Q&A with incoming Children’s Theatre artistic director Rick Dildine

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 15:52:18 +0000

Every time he starts directing a new play, Rick Dildine thinks about two people. Well — two versions of himself.

“Any time I’m making something, I’m always setting it up to delight my 8- and my 80-year-old self,” he said.

Rick Dildine will be the new artistic director of Children’s Theatre Company. Dildine, the current artistic director of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, was named as the successor to longtime CTC artistic leader Peter Brosius. (Courtesy photo by Wesley Law)

Dildine, a longtime theater producer and director, was announced earlier in January as the next artistic director of Minneapolis’s Children’s Theatre Company, one of the country’s largest and most renowned theaters for multigenerational and young audiences.

Dildine grew up in a farm family in rural Arkansas and fell in love with theater in high school, he said. He trained as an actor, but soon realized he found more fulfillment in behind-the-scenes production roles, like directing.

Over the past couple decades, he’s led theatrical companies across the lower Midwest and East Coast, including Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, and he became the artistic director of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in 2017.

At CTC, Dildine will be just the third artistic director in nearly four decades: Jon Cranney led the organization’s creative side for 12 years from the mid-1980s until 1997, when Peter Brosius took over the role. During Brosius’s decades-long tenure, he is credited with having significantly expanded the theater’s prestige, physical presence and success in commissioning new work.

Brosius announced last year that he’d be stepping down after the 2023–24 season. To find his replacement, the theater conducted an international search; Dildine was the search committee’s unanimous choice, committee chair and CTC interim managing director Steven J. Thompson said in a statement announcing Dildine’s hiring.

Dildine officially begins July 1.

Before Dildine moves from Alabama to the Twin Cities to take on the new role, we caught up with him to talk more about the current state — and the future — of theater for young audiences.

Children’s Theatre Company artistic director Peter Brosius has announced he will leave the theater at the end of its 2023-24 season. (Dan Norman / Children’s Theatre Company)

Q: To you, what makes a work of good multigenerational theater?

A: A lot of times, I find that in finding humor and joy and honesty. And I’m always trying to do the unexpected: When you do the unexpected, it allows the mind to go down places it might not normally go. It breaks binary thinking, a lot of times. Multigenerational work, for me, invites all different types of people and points of view into the room to be delighted.

Q: Broad strokes, can you share some of your goals when you take the reins at CTC?

A: What I can say now is a continued commitment to making new work; boundary-pushing, rigorous work for young people. I am going to be looking to find new ways of creating community within the theater. … I think it’s critical that we’re doing new work each year, and that we’re keeping the theater as a place where real conversations can happen.

Q: What might some of those community-building projects look like?

A: When I’m picking shows — because artistic directors’ No. 1 task is season planning — I’m always thinking about, how does it flow out of the building? What are the connections to the community?

One thing I’m particularly interested in is sports. There’s a lot of connection between sports teams and casts or groups that make theater. How do we have a conversation about what it means to be part of a team? What is teamwork? One thing I’m interested in is bringing coaches and directors into the same room and talking together about how to move people forward.

In this world that’s full of disruption and antagonism, continuing to find people and bring (them) together to talk about how we overlap. What do we have in common? What are we trying to do for our communities? That’s important to me.

Q: To that point, what do you think it takes to engage with kids not just as audience members but as part of that conversation?

A: Lately, I’ve done several shows with young people who are in positions and roles where I need their point of view. They have cracked open shows for me.

I put great value on their point of view. They’re partners, not puppets. If we want to connect with different ages, we have to value that thought process.

Whenever I engage with people, I always start with: What do you know about this? Here’s the story we’re trying to tell; what do you know? That plays out in the design, the direction, the music. That’s so important to creating authentic experiences on stage.

Q: Much of your recent work has been with Shakespeare festivals, and I think there’s perhaps a stereotype that Shakespeare feels inaccessible or high-brow whereas kids’ entertainment is sometimes written off as low-brow. How do you think that perceived gap influences the way you approach making theater for all ages?

A: I actually brought that up during the interview process — I said, I’m a Shakespeare guy, sitting here at Children’s Theatre Company!

For me, in Shakespeare, yes, the language can be complicated. But it’s all rooted in what it means to be a human. That concept, whether we’re dealing with the poetry of a king or the words of a pre-K to a teenager — what does it mean to be human? What is your specific point of view of the world?

I’ve been given the opportunity over 15 or so years to work within Shakespeare, which is heightened text, but what it really means is that these are extraordinary moments in people’s lives. That, for me, is a connection to young people very quickly and easily. We’re telling an extraordinary moment, using extraordinary tools — language, movement — to tell the story.

Like I said, every time I approach a show, I think, how would my 8-year-old self appreciate this and understand this? It’s not dumbing it down. It’s about, how can I get a young person to fall in love with theater through this piece?

Editorial: With Trump’s primary win, the die is cast

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 15:48:46 +0000

Perhaps you’ve been avoiding the whole thing, and no one could blame you. But with Donald Trump’s victory in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, and the Republican nominating contest all but sewn up, the 2024 presidential campaign looks set to be among the bleakest in memory.

Nikki Haley’s second-place finish was small consolation. She may not be every Republican’s cup of tea, but she has conventional qualifications — a former businesswoman, state legislator, two-term governor and United Nations ambassador — and has articulated a plausible agenda. Polls show her strongly favored against President Joe Biden. She would stand a decent chance of getting conservative policies enacted.

As for her opponent … well, you know already. Republicans must by now realize that nominating Trump will not advance their interests. In addition to the disorder, ineptitude and ambient corruption that characterized his first term, Trump was the weakest president since the New Deal. Outmaneuvered at every turn, he caved repeatedly to Democrats, ran up huge deficits and accomplished nearly no policy goals. He couldn’t even build his border wall, the notional premise of his campaign.

A second term promises more of the same, but worse. Trump’s rallies this time around have been uniformly dreary affairs, all menace and grievance and simmering paranoia. He occasionally feigns interest in the proposals his associates have cobbled together — more tariffs, more oil, more drama — but let’s be honest: Trump is facing 91 felony charges and counting. He is being sued by dozens of interested parties. He has appropriated the GOP’s fundraising apparatus to pay his legal fees and hopes the presidency will somehow shield him from further liability. If he can put some of his critics in jail, that’s fine, too.

With this oh-so-inspiring agenda, Republicans can expect Trump to have his usual electoral effect — that is, to drag down his own party at every opportunity. Recall that Trump was the first president in about nine decades to lose the House, the Senate and the Oval Office in a single term. Remember, too, that in competitive races his preferred candidates underperformed by about 5 percentage points on average. Trump himself remains remarkably unpopular, and he shows no inclination to widen his appeal.

It’s all so unnecessary. Biden is a weak incumbent. He polls poorly, blunders frequently and lacks (shall we say) a certain youthful vitality. He will soon be asking voters to keep him in office until he’s 86. Nearly half the country thinks his age and health “severely limit his ability to do the job.”

Unburdened of Trump, Republicans would have a good chance of winning the White House and making gains in Congress. They could pursue the pro-family, anti-crime agenda many of them say they want while reforming the party to meet the needs of a new demographic and economic era. And they could do so without endangering the foundations of the republic. We could all, you might say, start getting back to normal.

It’s not happening. Time has run out. Trump is their man. As Republicans continue down this ugly road — with all the anger and spite and division it entails — they’ll have only themselves to blame.

— The Bloomberg Opinion editorial board

Public defender pay raise shakes up staffing in Minnesota county attorney offices

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 15:42:37 +0000

Many county attorneys have left for the higher pay, but some counties have also raised wages in response.

Twin Cities ice castles plan for early closure due to warm weather

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 15:32:34 +0000

One Twin Cities ice castle will close this weekend, while another is adjusting its hours in response to recent warm weather.

On Friday, the Ice Palace Minnesota in Delano announced that Saturday would be its last day of the season – just six days after it opened. According to the announcement, people who purchased tickets for after Saturday will receive an email with refund information.

“This winter has certainly been an adventure – one we hoped would last a little longer, but we are thankful for the time we've had in Delano and everyone who worked tirelessly to make it happen,” general manager Anna Smith said in a statement.

Ice Castles MN, Facebook

“We received a small window of winter wonderland this year and we plan to make the best of it.”

Meanwhile, Ice Castles in Maple Grove announced it would be open for extended hours next week in anticipation of an early closure.

While the attraction is typically closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for maintenance, Ice Castles will be open on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“With mild temperatures on the horizon, Ice Castles added the two additional dates in January as they are anticipating a shorter season and would like to accommodate as many guests as they can,” the announcement from Ice Castles read.

The attraction said it encourages those who purchased tickets for February to change their date to next week without charge.

Sheriff: Suspect in Coon Rapids triple homicide arrested

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 14:10:26 +0000

Authorities have announced an arrest in Friday's triple homicide in Coon Rapids.

The incident happened on the 200 block of 94th Avenue Northwest around 12:30 p.m. Police responded to the scene after receiving an open-line 911 call with sounds of a disturbance in the background, and found three people dead inside the residence.

On Saturday morning, the Anoka County Sheriff's Office announced that an adult male has been taken into custody, though the "names and ages of the suspect and victims will be released at a later time."

The sheriff's office also says that two juveniles who were in the residence at the time of the incident were not injured.

The investigation is still underway.

Note: The details provided in this story are based on law enforcement’s latest version of events, and may be subject to change.

New Minnesota state flag becomes partisan issue in 2024

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Republicans plan to introduce legislation to put the final Minnesota state flag design to a public vote.

Some Minnesota corporations quietly resume donations to election disputers

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 13:00:00 +0000

At least eight major companies with headquarters in Minnesota have given more than $400,000 to members of Congress who disputed Electoral College results in the last presidential election.

Mary Ellen Klas: Free speech on campus gets snagged in doublespeak

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 12:39:06 +0000

The opening sentence of the federal court opinion was like none other: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker quoted the haunting first line of George Orwell’s classic novel “1984” as he struck down parts of the Florida law that prohibited colleges from teaching eight topics related to race.

The analogy was ripe. The state’s “argument is like the thirteenth chime of a clock: you not only know it’s wrong, but it causes you to wonder about everything you heard before,” Walker explained in the notes of his 2022 decision.

He concluded that Florida’s passage of the “Individual Freedom Act” (called the “Stop W.O.K.E.” Act by Gov. Ron DeSantis) allowed professors to “enjoy ‘academic freedom’ so long as they express only those viewpoints of which the State approves.” Walker proclaimed the law “positively dystopian” and declared it Orwellian “doublespeak.”

But, as Florida goes, so goes the nation. Sadly, this is true more often than most Americans want to believe, and we encountered that unfortunate reminder last month in Washington. Three university presidents were asked by a congressional committee whether statements calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ codes of conduct. Their vague and inadequate answers essentially told us: Bigotry is unacceptable but punishment is selective.

That’s because demographics are changing with more minority and LGBTQ students enrolling in higher education. Campuses that encourage collaborative learning from students of diverse backgrounds have unlocked a divine development: Students are more likely to engage, innovate and open their minds. So colleges want to make their environments more inclusive and many schools have decided that means adopting rules to eliminate toxic hate speech that can poison their educational mission.

But there is growing perception that overzealous administrators are too often using these rules as tools to exert their power over faculty or promote a political agenda. Rather than find ways to encourage discussions about objectionable points of view, some schools are silencing them.

Lynn Greenky, professor emeritus of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University offers some examples in The Conversation. Harvard rescinded admission offers to 10 students who posted sexually explicit messages on social media in 2017. Several colleges proposed guidelines regarding offensive Halloween costumes in 2016. And, in 2013, two students at Lewis & Clark College were punished for telling racially themed jokes at a private party.

Many schools have also adopted speech codes, making it a violation to say things that some groups find offensive. According to the libertarian-leaning Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), 94 of the 486 schools it monitors had speech codes that “substantially restrict free speech” and another 324 schools maintain policies “that impose vague regulations on expression.”

Enter the red state free speech police. Worried that more diversity policies will lead to left-leaning “indoctrination,” several Republican state legislatures, like Florida’s, have passed bills to restrict discussion of structural racism and injustice and ban all diversity, equity and inclusion programs at colleges.

But here’s where the left and right get snagged by Orwell’s warning: University speech codes and bans on DEI both lead to ideological conformity.

In his take-down of Florida’s “Stop W.O.K.E Act,” Judge Walker explained that Florida was engaged in “viewpoint discrimination — in the name of combatting ‘indoctrination’ of one perceived orthodoxy, the State allows for ‘indoctrination’ in its preferred orthodoxy.”

DeSantis offered his own example in his state-of-the-state speech this month. He bragged that Florida had “eliminated” DEI programs and scrubbed its public universities of “indoctrination.” But it was more doublespeak, because he then announced that the state university system had waived its rules to make it easier for Jewish students “who have a well-founded fear of antisemitic persecution at their current postsecondary institutions” to transfer to Florida colleges.

Helping Jewish students is a worthy initiative but in light of DeSantis’ anti-DEI laws, it also smacks of hypocrisy. Although Florida bans special treatment of some subjugated groups — ostensibly Black, brown and LGBTQ people — when it comes to a voting constituency the governor is courting, such as Jews, his ban on inclusionary programs no longer applies.

This debate isn’t just about the 20 states that have enacted these divisive bans. Former President Donald Trump has said he will implement many anti-DEI policies on a national scale if he is elected a second time.

Walker suggested there is a better option for government than attempting “to eliminate one side of the debate.” Instead, the state could “combat ‘woke’ ideas with countervailing views in the ‘marketplace of ideas’…”

He’s right. We undermine free speech and academic freedom when we silence competing ideas. There is a place for university codes of conduct, but the goal should be to keep students physically safe while their minds are subject to the kind of intellectual rigor that makes them uncomfortable. And institutions need divergent voices and inclusive policies to thrive, but their programs should not be used as a cudgel for conformity.

Mary Ellen Klas is a Politics and Policy Columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former capital bureau chief for the Miami Herald, she has covered politics and government for more than three decades.

Man, 88, jailed in hit-and-run that left Duluth firefighter with 'significant injuries'

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 22:56:22 +0000

A Duluth firefighter and national guardsman is hospitalized and an elderly man is in jail following a hit-and-run this week.

It happened Thursday afternoon on the 9500 block of Grand Ave., where 24-year-old Raymond Skoglund was struck by a car and left with "significant injuries," per the Duluth Police Department:

The suspect vehicle and its driver were located a short time later, and on Friday, police announced that the 88-year-old had been arrested and booked into the St. Louis County Jail.

Multiple charges — including criminal vehicular operation, gross negligence and failure to stop for an injury accident — are now pending against the man.

Bring Me The News does not typically name suspects until they have been formally charged with a crime.

Meanwhile, Skoglund is in stable condition but faces "a very long road to recovery," according to a GoFundMe launched on his behalf Friday.

He's described as a "proud firefighter both on Duluth Fire Department as well as in the Air National Guard 148th Fighter Wing" who is "an incredibly dedicated and loving man to his family, friends and everyone he meets."

The GoFundMe organizer says Skoglund is in the Intensive Care Unit with "two broken legs, a fractured rib and cervical vertebrae, broken nose and jaw, and multiple minor brain bleeds."

Just six hours after it was launched, the fundraising effort has garnered over $24,000 in donations — more than half of its $40K goal.

You can donate right here.

Less than a week after opening, Minneapolis outdoor ice rinks close

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 21:49:53 +0000

The outdoor ice rinks in Minneapolis parks are closing due to warm weather, less than a week after they opened.

In an announcement Friday afternoon, Minneapolis Parks and Recreation said its staff "worked tirelessly to open rinks during a challenging and unusual winter, but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate this year."

Temperatures have risen above freezing during the day this week, and are expected to spike into the 50s next week.

Minneapolis Park and Recreation

After an unusually warm end to December/start of January, rinks were only able to be opened to the public till last week following a week-long deep freeze.

But the end of the cold snap and a return to warmth has forced the rinks to be shut down, as well as forcing the cancelation or modification of a multitude of winter events across the Twin Cities and Minnesota.

"We will send another update if there is a significant change in the forecast and rinks are able to reopen," the parks department said.

"We'll audit all broomball and pond hockey leagues after a final determination is made on the season and teams will be credited for canceled games as stated in the 2024 broomball and pond hockey league bulletins."

BREAKING: Three killed in Coon Rapids incident; no arrests made

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 21:27:40 +0000

A triple homicide investigation is underway in Coon Rapids on Friday afternoon after authorities responded to a disturbance at a home and discovered three people dead.

The Anoka County Sheriff's Office said law enforcement went to the home near the 200 block of 94th Avenue Northwest around 12:30 p.m. after receiving an open line 911 call with sounds of a disturbance in the background.

"Upon arrival, law enforcement located two males and one female deceased inside of the residence," the Sheriff's Office stated.

Authorities have not shared whether or not a suspect is being sought in connection with the investigation, but the sheriff's office did confirm that no arrests have been made as of around 3:15 p.m.

LCD Soundsystem announce show Minneapolis' Armory

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 21:23:41 +0000

LCD Soundsystem is bringing its North American "Kinda Tour" to Minneapolis this spring.

The band will perform at The Armory on Wednesday, May 22. Tickets go on sale Friday, Feb. 2 at 10 a.m. Artist presale tickets go on sale Tuesday, Jan. 30 at noon.

Minnesota is one of five states the band will perform in before beginning a summer tour in Europe.

It'll mark the first performance for LCD Soundsystem in Minnesota since 2017, when they played the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, according to Concert Archives.

The Brooklyn rock band was formed in 2002 by James Murphy, who is the co-founder of DFA Records.

The band is best known for songs including "North American Scum", "Losing My Edge", "All My Friends", "Dance Yrself Clean", and others.

I-94 in the east metro to close overnight on Saturday

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 21:19:09 +0000

A stretch from Interstate-94 between east St. Paul and Woodbury will close in both directions overnight this weekend.

The closure will begin around 11:45 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27 and remain in place until 7 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 28, according to the Metropolitan Council.

Crews will be doing utilities work related to the METRO Gold Line bus rapid transit project during the closure.

Detour routes for motorists will be posted on Interstate-35E and Interstate-694.

Courtesy of Metropolitan Council.

Police at scene of ongoing incident in Anoka County

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 20:16:22 +0000

UPDATE: Read the latest here.

Authorities in Anoka County are responding to an ongoing incident Friday afternoon.

The incident is near the 200 block of 94th Avenue NW in Coon Rapids, the Anoka County Sheriff's Office said.

Police scanner account MN Crime has shared images showing an armored vehicle at the scene and numerous law enforcement agencies.

Scanner traffic has indicated potentially multiple fatalities, but early reports are often subject to change, and this has not been officially confirmed at this time.

More information is expected to be released just before 3 p.m.

This is a developing story. Check back for details as we learn more.

Note: The details provided in this story are based on law enforcement’s latest version of events, and may be subject to change.

What I learned when I met Houthi rebels in Yemen

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 20:00:01 +0000

When I met the Houthi rebel leaders in ‎Yemen in 2014 at a high school ‎graduation ceremony to celebrate the ‎most accomplished students in Yemen, ‎they had us repeatedly chant, “Allah is the greatest. Death to America. Death to ‎Israel. Curse on the Jews and Victory ‎to Islam.” That slogan captures the ‎fanatical psychology and ideology of the ‎Houthis, the Yemen-based and Iran-‎backed Shia Islamist rebel militia.

Having lived and studied in the United ‎States for almost eight years (I am now a ‎Ph.D. student at the University of ‎Minnesota), my new outside vantage ‎point has helped me to clarify my ‎understanding of the Houthis and the ‎threat they represent, not just to Yemen ‎but to American interests in the region.

At my high school graduation where I met ‎with those Houthi rebel leaders, I felt their ‎genuine belief that they are descendants ‎of the prophetic family and, on that basis, ‎are entitled by Allah to rule all of Yemen. ‎All other Yemenis — who are not part of that ‎prophetic lineage and who, as Sunni ‎Muslims, represent 75% of the population ‎of Yemen — will, if the Houthis prevail, be ‎condemned to live under a tyrannical ‎theocratic regime controlled completely ‎by the Houthis.

The Houthi ideology is rooted in an embrace of Islamism, a politicized form of Islam that was, in part, conceived as jihadism in Egypt by Sayyid Qutb ‎and Hassan ‎al-Banna of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The underlying principles of Salafi jihadism can be seen in other Islamic movements, such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. Much of the Houthis’s power behind that ideology is found in their close ties with Iran.

An understanding of the Houthis is important to not only better understand the current tensions in the Red Sea, where the United States is now seeking to protect vital shipping lanes from Houthi attacks, but to also see manifestations in Yemen of Iran’s broader ambitions in the Middle East.

With external support from Iran, the Houthis have seized ‎the ‎capital of Yemen and now control the ‎northern provinces ‎through brute force (torture and executions are common). Part of the power of the Houthi movement comes from a large and powerful tribe within Yemen. A combination of that tribal power, support from Iran, and a religious zealotry fueled by Islamism, where death in the struggle for Yemen leads to an immediate ascension into heaven, all make the Houthis a formidable force against the Yemeni government, even with robust support from Saudi Arabia for that government.

It is important to distinguish Islam, a spiritual ‎religion, from Islamism, a politicized and militarized ideology that embraces, and even celebrates, violence to spread that ideology.

In addition to the use of violence, the Houthis propagate their ideology ‎through ‎systematic indoctrination. When the Houthis ‎seized the northern ‎provinces of Yemen, they replaced ‎the ‎school curriculum with an Islamist curriculum, believing that it is necessary for the ‎salvation of the ‎Yemeni ‎people.

Unfortunately, ‎the Houthis are just one of several Islamist ‎‎groups in Yemen. Even in the southern provinces, other ‎extremist Islamists also seek to enforce their ‎‎ideology through violence and indoctrination.‎

Ironically, the Houthis had long been preparing for ‎their “‎Arab Spring” because prior to their revolt they ‎felt oppressed by the Yemeni government because they did not ‎have the right to practice their form of religion. The ‎‎Houthis are now retaliating by seeking to brutally impose ‎their minority ‎religious understanding on all of Yemen.‎

As a Yemeni myself, the strife in my country is painful and heartbreaking. Due to this conflict, Yemen is suffering from one of the worst ‎humanitarian ‎crises in modern history. Although exact counts are not possible, the civilian death toll resulting from this conflict is likely around 400,000. The country is ‎‎entrenched in a seemingly endless civil ‎war over sectarian differences, perhaps analogous to ‎the bloody European wars of religion which started soon after the Reformation began in 1517 and which did not end for over a century.

The solution?

There is no quick or easy solution. With the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which largely ended the European wars of religion, and with the slow embrace of Enlightenment principles — which ‎made individual rights, such as freedom of religion and free speech, primary — Europe found sectarian peace, though of course secular and other ideological wars continued in Europe into the 20th century. The point is that fundamental societal change is usually slow, especially when it comes to religion.

Christians ‎came to embrace freedom of religion ‎and freedom of speech as a way to help ensure ‎that minorities and the majority could ‎‎peacefully coexist, not only over sectarian differences but, ideally, over secular differences as well. Religion is a sacred personal ‎matter and the government should be both secular and maintain absolute separation from individual religious choices and practices. When religion ‎is intertwined ‎with the government, both are more likely to be corrupted.‎

Abdulrahman Bindamnan

By Christians embracing freedom of religion and freedom of ‎speech — both bedrock Enlightenment values — peace was made more likely than war and I believe the same path needs to be followed and championed by Muslims as a key part of a long-term solution, not only to the bloody conflict in Yemen but to other conflicts within the Muslim world. ‎Without freedom of religion and freedom ‎of speech, it is difficult to see a world where all humans can flourish. This will require courage in the face of severe resistance and danger, the marshaling of compelling ideas and principles which can be broadly understood, and patience for a long campaign to change hearts and minds through persuasion and not force.

Abdulrahman M. Bindamnan is a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota and contributing author for Psychology Today.

Acclaimed Twin Cities pizzeria Boludo is expanding to Miami

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 19:54:25 +0000

Boludo is expanding outside of Minnesota, announcing its next restaurant will be built in Miami.

The Minneapolis-based business, owned by Chef Facundo DeFraia, announced the news on its Instagram page Friday.

The Argentinian-style pizzeria has four locations in Minneapolis: 2935 Girard Ave. S. in Uptown, 1519 Como Ave. SE in Marcy Holmes, 530 S. 4th St. in downtown, and 8 W. 38th St. in Kingfield.

Since debuting in Kingfield in 2018, Boludo has won legions of supporters and racked up many accolades for its diamond-shaped pies and flavor-packed empanadas.

The restaurant was honored in Yelp's 2021 list of "Top 100 Places to Eat."

Boludo, Facebook

Minnesota Department of Health reports 40-year high in cases of congenital syphilis

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 19:00:53 +0000

Bill Strande at KARE 11 writes the Minnesota Department of Health is reporting a 40-year high in cases of congenital syphilis.

Karen Scullin and FOX 9 staffers report tempers at a Minneapolis City Council meeting on Thursday boiled over as Ward 4 Council Member Jeremiah Ellison told longtime community advocate Al Flowers to “shut the f— up.”

Carson Hughes at the Le Sueur County News reports investors from Chanhassen announced their plans to purchase and renovate the old Pillsbury Green Giant building into a high-tech, cannabis cultivation and processing center.

Kyle Stokes at Axios reports Minneapolis made more money from parking meters and ramps in 2023 than in any year since the pandemic, according to new figures released this week.

Paul Walsh at the Star Tribune is reporting hostility toward Somali students at St. Louis Park High School from a mother and her children last week fueled a brawl that started in a hall and flared up again in the parking lot, according to charges filed Friday.

Christine Schuster at Bring Me the News reports Caribou Coffee at the corner of Grand Avenue and Oxford Street in St. Paul recently closed its doors after three decades in business.

Louis Krauss and Zoë Jackson at the Star Tribune report actor Timothée Chalamet paid a surprise visit Thursday to aspiring actors at Hibbing High School while researching his upcoming role as Bob Dylan in a film about the singer-songwriter’s early life.

Brainerd Ice Fishing Extravaganza shifts to 'hybrid approach' amid 'unprecedented' warmth

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 18:42:51 +0000

The annual Brainerd Jaycees Ice Fishing Extravaganza tournament is moving to a "hybrid" approach in 2024 amid "unprecedented" warm winter weather.

Organizers said the decision is based on its "unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of all participants." It's scheduled to start on Feb. 3.

Rather than limiting the event to Gull Lake as per usual, the "hybrid" approach expands the tournament across multiple Brainerd Area lakes, with extended hours. The precautions are due to "unprecedented ice conditions" seen this winter.

The contest is recognized as one of the world's largest ice fishing contests, attracting tens of thousands of people to the area each winter. The event helps raise millions of dollars that go to charitable organizations and the economy.

Brainerd Jaycees

"In the spirit of adaptability and safety, we have devised a plan that prioritizes the well-being of the public, our community, and the dedicated anglers who make this event truly special. After careful consideration, the Extravaganza is pivoting to a hybrid model for the upcoming tournament," organizers said on Friday.

"While we understand that this may not be the ideal scenario for some participants, we deem it crucial to prioritize safety and flexibility in light of unprecedented ice conditions. We insist that all contestants exercise utmost caution on any ice," organizers said.

The 34th annual event will use Fish Donkey as its platform, and is working on providing in-person support across the area to help contestants who may not be familiar with the Fish Donkey platform.

During the 2023 event, a 13-year-old boy from Hutchinson caught the biggest walleye in the event, earning him a brand new pickup truck. Roughly 12,000 participants signed up last year.

Tickets are still available at local Fleet Farm stores and participating outlets. Sales end on Friday.

Downtown St. Paul lands comfort food restaurant across from the X

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:43:21 +0000

A new restaurant promising comfort food and craft cocktails recently arrived in downtown St. Paul.

Smorgie's opens Monday, Jan. 29, but the restaurant directly across from the Xcel Energy Center is already beginning to hum to life ahead of the official launch.

A smorgasbord of comfort food is vision behind the concept, which was devised by the developers of the downtown block, Kaeding Development and Compass45.

Courtesy of Smorgie's.

The Smorgie's Board, which comes with onion rings, fresh-cut cheese curds, mini corndogs, Swedish meatballs and your choice of a smash burger or chicken sandwich, is the priciest menu item at $22.

Everything else on the menu, such as tater-tot hot dish, sloppy Joe's, a Kentucky Fried Chicken-style bowl and more, is priced under $15.

Drinks are also priced near the lower end of the downtown bar scene, ranging from $6-$8 for tap beers and $12 for the priciest signature cocktail.

A comfort food dish from someone in the community will also be featured monthly at Smorgie's.

Recipe submissions for the "Comfort Food of the Month" can be made at www.smorgiesbar.com.

Smorgie's will be open daily from 11 a.m. until 1 a.m. with happy hour from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m.
Brunch, expected to launch in late February, will be offered Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m.

The biggest snubs and surprises of the 2024 Oscar nominations

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:39:39 +0000

Oscar nominations arrived Tuesday, an early morning wakeup call that was greeted, in some quarters, with all manner of jumping, mostly for joy, possibly some of the furious kind. For others, the break of day was like the atomic bomb test sequence in “Oppenheimer” — an irrevocable countdown leading to oblivion. You think it’s hard just being Ken? Try being just a Golden Globe nominee. That, my friends, is an existential crisis.

In a perfect world, of course, it’d be cherries jubilee for everyone. But these are the Oscars, not the “Critics” Choice Awards, a show where categories and nominations are as abundant as the hot dogs in “May December.” The Oscars cap their nominees at five per category, leading, invariably, to some surprises and omissions — some egregious, some understandable.

For the sake of alliteration and search engine optimization, we’ll call these oversights “snubs,” though voters likely meant no ill will, unless they were the person at my “Saltburn” screening that started shrieking in agony when Barry Keoghan slurped the cloudy bathtub water down to the last drop. That’s personal. They’ll carry that grudge to the grave.

But let’s not dwell on that. Let’s move on to the snubs and surprises of the nominations for the 96th Academy Awards, which will be presented on March 10.

SNUB: Greta Gerwig, “Barbie” (director)

No! Not again! Four years after being overlooked for her work behind the camera for “Little Women,” the academy’s directors branch again slighted Gerwig, this time for “Barbie.” You’d think making a movie that grossed more than $1.4 billion at the box office, earned ecstatic reviews and launched a thousand think pieces would have merited a nomination.

SURPRISE: Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall” (director)

“Anatomy of a Fall” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and since then, the only speed bump Triet has encountered was France choosing another movie (“The Taste of Things”) for its international feature entry. I imagine the selection committee regrets that decision now, as Triet’s twisty legal thriller earned a best picture nomination along with nods for lead actress Sandra Hüller and the screenplay, written by Triet and her partner, filmmaker Arthur Harari. By all means, crank up that steel drum cover of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” to celebrate. But do stay off the roof of your house.

SNUB: “The Color Purple” (picture)

Maybe it was the late arrival, which shortened the runway for the movie to be screened for some of the guilds. Maybe voters felt like they didn’t need another “Color Purple,” even though this was an adaptation of the 2005 Broadway musical and not an update on the 1985 Steven Spielberg movie. If you saw it with an audience, you couldn’t help but get caught up in its story and its energy. It was not a movie to watch on the couch, which too many academy members did. And once cast members began criticizing poor working conditions on the set and low pay, the narrative shifted, with media reports focusing on the controversy instead of the film’s achievements. “It opened well with strong reviews, but then all you heard about was the complaints,” says a source close to the film. “It overshadowed the movie.”

SURPRISE: Colman Domingo, “Rustin” (lead actor)

The purpose of the biopic “Rustin” was to introduce audiences to the work of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, a man who helped organize the March on Washington, the landmark 1963 demonstration where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. The movie came freighted with exposition, along with lengthy monologues and much stirring oration. And it worked because Domingo was the actor doing the talking. Sometimes at the Oscars, all an actor needs is a biopic with a couple of good speeches and a scene or two that softens voters’ hearts.

SNUB: Leonardo DiCaprio, “Killers of the Flower Moon” (lead actor)

Lily Gladstone, left, and Leonardo DiCaprio in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” (Melinda Sue Gordon/Apple TV+/TNS)

This feels like the year the academy overlooked DiCaprio for playing the debonair, depraved plantation owner in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained.” Then and now, DiCaprio earned a Golden Globe nomination, but failed to secure a SAG Awards spot and then suffered a similar fate with the Oscars, even though most pundits had him making the cut. The “Killers” campaign was so focused on DiCaprio’s co-star Lily Gladstone that it took for granted that voters would reflexively check off the box next to his name. Many voters I spoke with couldn’t understand his character’s behavior. He loves his wife … but wants to murder her and wipe out her family? Yes! It’s messy. But Oscar voters like their villains to be a little less complicated.

SURPRISE: Sterling K. Brown, “American Fiction” (supporting actor)

Brown’s big turn as the cosmetic surgeon whose wife left him after finding out he’s been having affairs with men brought a delightful chaos to “American Fiction” as well as real sense of poignancy later in the film in his scenes with Jeffrey Wright. Voters rewarded both actors.

SNUB: Margot Robbie, “Barbie” (lead actress)

Left to right, Ryan Gosling, Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie attend the press junket and photo call For “Barbie” at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on June 25, 2023, in Los Angeles. (Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images/TNS)

A couple of months ago, I wrote that the only thing that could prevent Robbie from being nominated would be voters failing to appreciate the degree of difficulty in what she pulls off in the film — the comic timing, the emotional depth she brings to the character, the precise body control required to play a plastic doll. And here we are with the academy, once again, discounting great acting in a comedy.

SURPRISE: America Ferrera, “Barbie” (supporting actress)

America Ferrera’s powerful monologue in “Barbie,” in which she laments, “I’m just so tired of watching myself, and every single other woman, tie herself into knots so that people will like us,” was transcribed and discussed and widely appreciated as a highlight of the movie. But the performance as a working mother trying to find purpose and a connection with her daughter was bigger than the speech.

SNUB: Greta Lee, “Past Lives” (lead actress)

Eight out of the 10 movies nominated for best picture also picked up nods for their actors. Those left out: “The Zone of Interest” and “Past Lives.” The former is more understandable, as Sandra Hüller, chilling as the wife of the Auschwitz commandant, secured a nomination for her lead turn in “Anatomy of a Fall.” Less forgivable: Overlooking Lee’s remarkable turn as a woman whose life is upended when her childhood sweetheart comes to visit from Korea. It’s a master class in communicating subtle behavior and emotions. Unfortunately, the Oscars typically subscribe to the“Hoooo-aaah” school of acting.

SURPRISE: Annette Bening, “Nyad” (lead actress)

Annette Bening in the movie “Nyad.” (Liz Parkinson/Netflix/TNS)

Bening and her “Nyad” co-star Foster were both nominated by SAG Awards voters, and the academy clearly approved. It’s Bening’s fifth nomination and first since her superb turn as the wine-loving workaholic trying to hold her family together in “The Kids Are All Right.” She’ll be a long-shot in the category. No matter. It’ll be nice to see her — and Foster — at the Oscars again.

SNUB: “May December” (acting)

Todd Haynes’ provocative character study received a warm greeting at its Cannes premiere, and the good vibes continued through December as critics groups lavished the film with prizes for its screenplay and supporting actor Charles Melton. Then after it dropped on Netflix, the Film Twitter discourse turned … interesting, with people wondering if the movie was supposed to be camp or a melodrama or what? It was like people were seeing a Todd Haynes movie for the first time — which many indeed were, as none of his previous efforts had ever debuted in wide release. You’d think academy members would be able to appreciate the nuances of his style, but the actors branch proved immune, ignoring both Charles Melton and Julianne Moore, both of whom had been pegged by many as nominees.

SNUB: Penélope Cruz, “Ferrari” (supporting actress)

It’s odd when Michael Mann makes a movie as enjoyable as “Ferrari” and nobody notices. I get how it could be lapped in the crowded best picture race, but ignoring Cruz, an Oscar winner and four-time nominee, feels like one of those omissions that people will look back on and ask, “How did she not get nominated?” Her fierce portrayal of Laura Ferrari, a woman consumed by grief over the death of her son and stewing with resentment over the dismissive way her husband and others treat her, was one of the highlights of the film.

Lisa Jarvis: A promising turn in the quest to treat long COVID

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:34:39 +0000

A new study published this month in Science makes a compelling case that people with long COVID have a chronic imbalance in their immune response. The findings don’t explain why that immune response is out of whack, and need confirming in larger studies. Still, this is important new piece to the vexing puzzle that is long COVID.

One of the challenges with diagnosing and treating long COVID is the dozens of ways it can manifest: brain fog, extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, heart palpitations and headaches, to name just a few. Finding a common biomarker across people experiencing such different symptoms suggests a path to a diagnostic test. The work even could lead to new treatment strategies.

A sharp focus on tests and treatments for long COVID has never been more critical. As we approach the fifth year of living with COVID, the virus has issued one of its regular reminders that it’s not going anywhere: Hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. have been ticking up since early November, and wastewater data suggest the country is experiencing the biggest peak in cases in more than a year.

Each wave risks adding to the already massive number of people experiencing long-term effects of their infection. The most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed that 8.8 million people in the U.S. were living with long COVID in 2022. Meanwhile, new preliminary data, reported in Medscape, show that nearly 1,500 people died from long COVID last year. Some health experts expect long COVID to account for an increasing portion of overall COVID deaths.

This latest research is a good step in explaining what might be going wrong in the immune systems of people with lingering symptoms. Scientists at the University of Zurich followed 113 people with COVID over the course of a year to understand on a molecular level the differences between those that did and did not develop long COVID. Using sophisticated technologies to analyze more than 6,500 proteins in each blood sample, they found a distinct signal: People with long COVID had elevated levels of proteins involved in the “complement” system, a part of our immune response that tags foreign microbes for disposal.

Typically, the complement system revs up when we’re exposed to a virus or bacteria and then relaxes when the threat is eliminated. During that resting state, it plays a key role in sweeping away dead or damaged cells.

But when that part of our immune response is constantly triggered, it can cause inflammation and cell and tissue damage, and even causes increased blood clotting — all symptoms found in people with long COVID, explains Onur Boyman, the immunologist who led the study.

The work doesn’t explain why this arm of the immune system continues to be on high alert in some people, while others recover — only that it seems to be a common feature of long COVID. But it does nicely intersect with some of the leading hypotheses about the root causes of the condition.

Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine who has been a leader in long COVID research in the U.S., called the work “a very important piece of the puzzle.” This study, along with others looking at this arm of the immune system, “are collectively saying that there’s something going on inside the blood,” she says.

The question for long COVID patients, of course, is how and when this work could help improve their lives. The next step will be confirming the findings in a larger patient group — and Iwasaki and others seem confident they will be validated. From there, a diagnostic company needs to develop a test for the proteins implicated in a dysregulated complement system.

And then there are treatments. The good news is that drugs that try to calm down an overactive complement system are already on the market and in development for other conditions. Some of those were tested to treat acute, severe COVID infections, with mixed results. But as evidence accumulates that the complement system contributes to long COVID, those treatments should be tested in clinical studies for this population.

Long COVID patients need these next steps to happen fast and with the full backing of government funding agencies. At a Senate hearing on long COVID this month, Rachel Beale, a long-COVID advocate, told lawmakers that she has been frustrated with the lack of progress in finding tests and treatments and made a plea for continued resources to push the science forward.

Three years into her condition, Beale has resigned herself to making peace with her situation, she said. “It makes me sad to think about my future. This may be as healthy as I get.”

Let’s hope this latest finding is a step forward in improving Beale’s life and the lives of the millions who share her condition.

Lisa Jarvis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, health care and the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was executive editor of Chemical & Engineering News.

Readers and writers: Superior’s other shore, a celebrated novel, and poets on poems

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:28:06 +0000

It’s a day of something for everybody, with a love letter to Lake Superior’s South Shore, a novel about romance and reindeer herds, and another featuring 50 poets writing about 50 poets.

“Impermanence: Life and Loss on Superior’s South Shore”: by Sue Leaf (University of Minnesota Press, $19.95)

In our years on the South Shore, we have learned an intimacy with Lake Superior that we couldn’t have developed in weeklong vacations to Ontonagon or to the North Shore. We have seen it stormy and worry about the freighters that steam by in shipping lanes ten miles from us. We have seen it restless, bestowing on us a sense that change is imminent. We have seen it placid as a small pond, shimmering with summer heat and making us drowsy as we lounge on its shore, or beckoning to us to launch a canoe and inspect the shoreline, since paddling would seem effortless. — from “Impermanence: Life and Loss on Superior’s South Shore”

Sue Leaf (Courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press)

Most Minnesotans know about the North Shore of Lake Superior, where rocky cliffs and deep, cold water inspire awe. But we know less about the big lake’s South Shore, spanning from Superior, Wis., across the entire northern edge of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. There we find wide sandy beaches and red clay bluffs, Sue Leaf writes in this collection of personal essays about life and history of the area around Port Wing, Wis., where the author and her family have owned a cabin for 35 years.

Leaf, who was trained as a zoologist, looks back to the days when La Pointe was home to the Anishinaabe and talks to a woman who today is finding her culture by learning to harvest wild rice. The author traces development and chronicles the long battle the National Park Service had to designate parts of the area as protected national shoreline in an effort to “rewild” the scenic areas that provide sports opportunities now. But the effort came at a cost — buyouts of dozens of cabin owners, some of whom had been residents for generations. The author is skeptical that we can ever return this populated area to what it once was because, she and her family learned, the forces of Lake Superior make the South Shore ever-changing. Its impermanence is what interests her.

“As we settled into what we hoped would be idyllic summers on Lake Superior, we soon found out that the impermanence was built into the lake’s relationship with its southern shore,” she writes. “Impermanence, of course, is part of life. Nothing lasts forever. When one is young, one tries to minimize that fact, but Superior reinforced it in a way that commanded our attention.”

For one thing, the family never knew how much beach they would see from year to year. Sometimes “it was broad and open, a ‘Chariots of Fire’ beach in miniature; sometimes it was narrow and hugged the cliff, studded with cobbles.”

Will they have a beach in the future? Leaf writes of erosion that she believes cannot be stopped. She was assured that it would take 100 years for erosion to reach their cabin; now she is not so sure.

The South Shore has been exploited for centuries by profit-seekers who controlled copper mining, fishing and other resources. Leaf understands the toll these businesses took on the environment, but she also laments the disappearance of “vibrant cultures” of the men and women who lived in fishing and mining villages.

Leaf’s publisher aptly calls this book “part memoir, part travelogue, part natural and cultural history.” She clearly loves the big lake’s history and people who have lived along its shores.

Among Leaf’s previous books are “The Bullhead Queen” and the 2021 Minnesota Book Award-winning “Minnesota’s Geologist: The Life of Newton Horace Winchell.”

“The End of Drum-Time”: by Hanna Pylvainen (Holt, $28.99)

Hanna Pylvainen (Beowulf Sheehan / Macmillan Publishers)

This novel of the far, far north created buzz from critics well before it was nominated for a 2023 National Book Award. Written by a member of the faculty of the Warren Wilson College MFA for writers, it’s the story of a young reindeer herder and a minister’s daughter in 19th-century Arctic circle. It starts slowly, as the Lutheran minister known as Mad Lasse is welcoming his congregation, which includes Sami reindeer herders he is trying to convert. But the Sami come mostly to trade gossip about other people’s herds. The plot picks up when one of the most respected herders leaves his animals in the care of his impetuous son, Ivvar, who meets Mad Lasse’s daughter Willa. The young woman follows him and other herders in their annual migration north to the sea. “The End of Drum-Time” was named Best Book of 2023 by NPR, Time, the Christian Science Monitor, Vox and Kirkus Reviews and named a most anticipated book of 2023 by Elle magazine. It also earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Book Page.

The National Book Award citation for choosing the novel as a finalist said: “In prose that is both luxuriant and precise, (the author) vividly transports the reader to the remote Scandinavian tundra of the 1850s, introducing complicated characters who reveal their deepest joys, sorrows, fears, and hopes. This stunning novel manages to explore major themes of identity, race, politics, and faith, all while putting the focus firmly on the human stories at hand. ‘The End of Drum-Time’ masterfully takes us to a place, people, and time unfamiliar to most readers but one that becomes completely alive — and closely mirrors the most divisive and potent aspects of our contemporary lives.” (Winners of 2023 National Book Awards will be announced Nov. 15.)

“Raised by Wolves: Fifty Poets on Fifty Poems”: (Graywolf Press, $17)

In this anthology from Graywolf Press, celebrating its 50th year of publishing, Graywolf invited 50 poets published by the Minneapolis-based literary press to select and write about poems they love by other Graywolf poets. This anthology “celebrates connections and linages across fifty poems and fifty brief and luminous essays about them,” writes Graywolf’s director/publisher Carmen Gimenez in her introduction. “The selections and reflections reveal what poets read and we learn how different poets dig into their enchantment, their unsettling. These short essays are like ekphrastic poems, or odes, or elegies, or fan letters. Erika L. Sanchez takes a synthetic joy in a poem by Diane Seuss. Donika Kelly describes learning the power and careful attention to the line and stanza break through Natasha Trethewey’s epistolary poem ‘January 11.’ ”

As guns claim more kids' lives in Minnesota, one mother searches for answers

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 16:53:58 +0000

Baky Mikaele's 14-year-old son is among nearly 100 juveniles killed by firearms in recent years — a surge not seen for decades.

Three adults charged for fighting students at St. Louis Park High School

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 16:51:38 +0000

Charges have been filed against three adults for fighting students at St. Louis Park High School.

A spokesperson with the St. Louis Park Police Department says Abreeha Annalisa Smith, 22; Jerome Averill Smith Jr., 19; and Latoys Raynell Milon, 41, all of St. Louis Park, are charged in the Jan. 18 incident.

The fights, captured on video and shared on social media, involved both students and adults. Classes were canceled the following day as school officials said further investigation was needed.

Police said it's likely additional charges will be filed at some point in the future.

According to the criminal complaints, officers were called to the school just before 2:15 p.m. on a report of "a parent threatening to beat up students."

An officer met with Milon, who claimed that her daughter, identified as "S.M.", was "jumped." Body camera footage captures Milon yelling at a group of high school girls, saying "Y'all one of them? Girl I swear to God all y'all finna get it!"

She continued screaming, "I'll fight any Somali that comes down those stairs, bro. These [Somalis] think they running shit, but they met their match."

Google Streetview

Milon's other children, Smith Jr., Smith and a juvenile identified as "D.S.", met with Milon and the officer. They then leave the school and exit to the school parking lot.

Surveillance footage reviewed by law enforcement shows the initial fight happen in the hallway where Milon's daughter was allegedly jumped. Police learned Smith and a Somali male was involved in the fight. S.M. is seen "voluntarily entering the fight at one point, throwing punches at another female student, contrary to what the girl originally reported to police."

According to the complaint, as the officer was interviewing other students about the fight, she was notified of another fight happening outside the school. Smith, Smith Jr., D.S., and S.M. were seen "actively fighting several Somali students." Additional officers arrived and all defendants left the scene in a white Mitsubishi.

One student accused D.S. of sucker-punching them, claiming she didn't know the person, nor did she do anything to provoke the attack. Another student identified Smith, who reportedly yelled at the student "You want this too? You can get it if you want," before allegedly punching the student in the head.

The student added that the group was yelling at every Somali student that walked past.

A third Somali student told police he was walking outside of the school when the group got out of the car and said something along the lines of, "Were you the one involved with my sister earlier?" The victim said he was confused, so he kept walking.

The boy said he felt targeted because he was Somali.

Surveillance footage shows the group get out of the vehicle and approach the third victim. Smith is seen throwing the victim to the ground and jumping on him, kicking and stomping him. Milon is then seen kicking and punching the student as well.

A fourth victim was choked for "three to five seconds" by Smith Jr., the complaint says.

The three people are charged with one count each of 3rd-degree riot and 4th-degree assault. If convicted, they each face up to two years in jail and a $6,000 fine.

An investigation remains active as of Friday. Anyone with information is asked to call the police department at 952-924-2618.

Pair fall through ice, boy stranded in fog while fishing west of Twin Cities

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 16:35:46 +0000

After a week-long respite thanks to a deep freeze, lake ice is becoming unstable once again around Minnesota as temperatures return to unnatural levels.

The end of December and start of January were punctuated by a multitude of lake ice rescues and accidents – several of them fatal – as unseasonal warmth limited ice growth on Minnesota's lakes.

And that seems to be the case once again as temps returned above freezing this week, with the latest rescue taking place Thursday evening on Lake Jennie in Collinwood Township, about 45 miles west of the Twin Cities metro.

The Meeker County Sheriff's Office says two men, a 64-year-old from Hutchinson and an 18-year-old from Dassel, broke throughj the ice while fishing on Lake Jennie, in Collinwood Township.

They were able to make it back to a landing with no injuries, but a boy was also left stranded on the lake due to dense fog, and was found by Litchfield and Dassel rescue teams using an airboat. He was not injured.

The sheriff's office has urged the public to "exercise due diligence before going out on the ice."

D.C. Memo: Did New Hampshire mark the end of the presidential primaries? Stauber takes on critics of his Blatnik Bridge stance

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 16:30:21 +0000

WASHINGTON — The political class here focused its attention this week on the New Hampshire presidential primary, where former President Donald Trump beat rival Nikki Haley, 54.3% to 43.2%, and appears to be on a fast track for the GOP nomination.

Trump held fast to his core GOP supporters, winning the backing of about 74% of the Republicans who voted, according to a CBS exit poll. Meanwhile, Haley was much stronger than Trump with moderates, independents and younger voters.

The other loser Tuesday night was Rep. Dean Phillips, D-3rd District, who was trounced by a write-in campaign for President Joe Biden, whose name was not on the ballot because New Hampshire Democrats did not adhere to their party’s new primary calendar.

The Minnesotan, however, considered his performance in New Hampshire in a positive light, saying he’d only been campaigning for about 10 weeks, and vowed to continue his long-shot bid.

Phillips told The New York Times earlier this week that he would consider running as a third-party candidate, with the centrist New Labels movement. But the congressman has seemed to back off of that idea, which would have threatened Biden by siphoning the support of some moderates and independents who are leaning toward the Democratic Party.

Phillips says he is determined to win the Democratic nomination for the White House.

Minnesota holds its presidential primary on Super Tuesday, March 5, when the greatest number of states hold their primaries and caucuses. Early voting has already started in Minnesota. But to many in the nation’s capital, the primaries are over and the rematch between Biden and Trump has begun in earnest this week.

Stauber pushes back on bridge controversy

Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8th District, was plunged into controversy this week for doing what many lawmakers do — more often on the GOP side of the aisle. That’s praising the allocation of funding for a special project, in this case more than $1 billion for a new Blatnik Bridge, whose funding comes from a bill Stauber rejected.

The new Blatnik Bridge, which connects Duluth with Superior, Wisconsin, will be funded by President Biden’s massive infrastructure bill, which was rejected by most House Republicans.

“Make no mistake; a vote for this ‘infrastructure’ package is a vote for the reckless multi-trillion-dollar tax-and-spend spree. That’s why I voted NO,” Stauber said in a statement when the bill was approved in November of 2021.

But this week, Stauber said he was an advocate for money for a new bridge to replace a structure that was built in 1961.

REUTERS/Tom Brenner

President Joe Biden surveying the John A. Blatnik Bridge beside construction workers, state and local officials in Superior, Wisconsin, on Thursday.

“I’m proud to announce that Duluth, MN and Superior, WI have received over 1 billion in federal funding to help replace the Blatnik Bridge. This is a HUGE win for #MN08 and I was proud to advocate for these funds!” the congressman said.

That caught the immediate attention of Gov. Tim Walz.

“Oh boy. I hate to talk politics when there’s good news to celebrate but this is too brazen to ignore,” Walz posted on X. “Mr. Stauber voted against every screw, steel beam, and concrete pier in this bridge. Luckily @POTUS worked with Stauber’s colleagues and got it done without him.”

Other Democrats also called Stauber out for what they viewed as hypocrisy.

Stauber is by no means the only lawmaker who has voted against a bill that funds a local project or program that that lawmaker supports and later takes credit for the funding of that project or program.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dubbed the phenomenon “vote ‘no’ and take the dough.”

Stauber tried to quell the increasing criticism directed his way and defend his position on the bridge in a video.

“I know it’s been a while since the president — and the governor — worked in Congress and maybe they need a refresher in the legislative process,” Stauber said.

The congressman said the first time the Minnesota Department of Transportation asked for money to repair and replace the Blatnik Bridge, which was built in 1961 and has since deteriorated, the state agency was rebuffed.

MnDOT said that was not exactly the case. It said it had put in for funding for the Blatnik Bridge in 2022, but it did not make the infrastructure bill’s first round of funding for a number of transportation programs.

“U.S. DOT selected the Brent Spence Bridge that connects Kentucky and Ohio over the Ohio rivers (instead),” MnDOT said in an emailed statement. “In 2023, MnDOT applied for funding for the Blatnik Bridge … and was successful at securing federal funding (as announced today) from the INFRA program.”

The INFRA program is a competitive grant program for projects of national or regional significance that facilitates the movement of freight and people in and across rural and urban areas.

Stauber did lobby for money for the bridge, joining Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith in asking Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for the money.

Stauber also signed a letter to Biden last year — also signed by Minnesota’s senators and Reps. Angie Craig, Dean Phillips and Ilhan Omar — in support of the Minnesota and Wisconsin Department of Transportations’ application for money to replace the bridge.

Biden traveled to the Blatnik Bridge — on the Superior, Wisconsin, side — on Thursday to tout the billions of dollars in local projects that will be funded by his infrastructure bill.

During a 25-minute speech, the president touted “Bidenomics” — taking credit for high employment and lowering inflation rates — and all the road and bridge projects his infrastructure bill has funded.

And about the necessity to replace the Blatnik Bridge, which cannot bear the weight of truck traffic any longer.

“For decades people talked about replacing this bridge, but it never got done. Until today. Until today,” Biden said.

Your questions and comments

A reader reacted to a story about Rep. Dean Phillips’s long-shot campaign for the White House with the following comment:

“It’s also worthwhile reporting on what constituents here in #MN03 think about our congressman going absent from Congress to campaign for president.”

I wrote about the impact the campaign would have on Phillips’ abilities to carry out his duties as a representative of the people in the 3rd District in early November. Since then, he has barely shown up on Capitol Hill, something that could tip the balance on key votes now that the GOP’s narrow majority has shrunk even further with the retirements of several House Republicans and former Rep. George Santos’ ouster.

Another reader also wrote weighed in on the Phillips campaign:

“… for me as a recent DFL delegate but not necessarily a party loyalist, I feel Mr. Phillips’s motivations lie more in personal glory than anything else. Despite his age, President Biden has put forth more effort and progressive reforms to strengthen this country and its shrinking middle class than any president since FDR.”

Please keep your comments, and any questions, coming. I’ll try my best to respond. Please contact me at aradelat@minnpost.com.

Our college students are struggling emotionally

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 16:20:55 +0000

The Hechinger Report is a national nonprofit newsroom that reports on one topic: education. Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get stories like this delivered directly to your inbox.

Our students are struggling. As a college president and a clinical psychologist, I know this well.

Recent headlines tell a distressing story about the mental health of college students. While the news articles are alarming, it is worth noting that much of the data they cite comes from self-reporting by students.

This self-reporting gives us important insights into how our students are feeling, but it is not equivalent to clinical diagnoses. By equating self-reporting with diagnoses, we risk applying the wrong interventions.

I’ve spent much of my career overseeing clinical services and other student supports, and I know the importance of clinical interventions. They are intended to be matched to specific diagnoses and can involve a variety of treatments, including individual or group and outpatient or inpatient, by licensed mental health professionals.

But I believe we must shift how we support students’ emotional needs. Clinical interventions are not the only way — and often not the most appropriate or effective way — to support young people who may be temporarily struggling with feelings that do not meet the full psychological definition of mental illness.

Rather than needing a clinical intervention, many students may benefit most from support that builds their resilience if they are feeling sad, worried, overwhelmed or anxious. Resilient students are better positioned to cope with temporary periods of heightened emotional stress.

In the past, teaching these skills was usually not seen as central to the mission of a college or university, yet learning how to cope emotionally may be among our students’ most vital and integral lessons.

It is something that will serve them throughout — and well beyond — their time on our campuses.

Data drawn from student self-reporting provides important insights into their needs. Some 44% of students reported that they experienced symptoms of depression during the 2021-22 academic year, a Healthy Minds survey of 96,000 U.S. college students shows; 37% said they experienced anxiety.

In addition, two out of five undergraduates said that they “frequently” experience emotional stress, results from a Gallup-Lumina Foundation report found, while 36% of students pursuing bachelor’s degrees reported that they had considered “stopping out” in the last six months. The most commonly cited reasons were “emotional stress” (69%) and “personal mental health reasons” (59%).

Researchers have hypothesized that at least some of these self-reported crises may be due to an increased awareness and normalization of mental health conditions.

This awareness is something we should regard as positive and beneficial because it reduces the stigma and isolation that have long impeded students from getting support. But we also must recognize an unintentional, negative impact of this increased awareness: overinterpretation.

Young people experiencing negative emotions and facing normal developmental challenges may be particularly vulnerable to misidentifying those experiences as actual illnesses.

This is not to suggest that the mental health crisis is not real, or that we should not support our students or validate their experiences. Students are struggling every day on my campus and on campuses across the country. Mental illness often first appears or worsens in young adulthood, and for these students, accessing appropriate clinical intervention is critical.

But for many students, what will be most appropriate and effective are supports to develop their resilience and coping strategies and the confidence to rebound from setbacks.

Being a young adult today is not easy. In addition to facing typical challenges, such as forming an identity and developing life skills, they have grown up with pressures from social media, isolation brought on by the global pandemic and the economic and political uncertainties of the twenty-first century.

Rising college costs have also raised the stakes for many students. College is a huge commitment both monetarily and emotionally, and our students know it.

They inevitably face obstacles when they move into the college environment, such as not knowing where they fit in and encountering more challenging coursework than they had previously. Believing they are an outlier, rather than the norm, may undermine their resilience.

That’s why at Lewis & Clark we incorporate resilience-building practices, using research-based belonging exercises as well as intentional peer-to-peer support.

Two of our psychology professors, Jerusha Detweiler-Bedell and Brian Detweiler-Bedell, spearheaded our participation in a multiyear Stanford-led study that aimed to foster a deeper sense of belonging among our incoming first-year students, with the goal of helping them understand that their struggles are normal — and that things will get better over time.

The exercises in the study incorporated stories of obstacles faced by other students and how they overcame them. While the original study’s sample size was small, we saw an increase in retention rates and GPAs, especially among students from underrepresented groups. The results were so compelling that all incoming Lewis & Clark undergraduates now participate in the social belonging intervention.

We also initiated a peer mentoring program specifically serving first-year students. The mentors reach out to incoming first-year students and introduce them to campus life with information about academic advising, navigating health and wellness services and various campus clubs and social options. The mentoring relationship begins during orientation and continues throughout the semester. Just as important as what the peer mentors do is how they model resilience.

Of course, approaches like these should be offered with an understanding of what other interventions some students may need. Clinical depression and anxiety disorders do require clinical support. Higher education institutions must continue to expand our capacity to provide such support for those students who need it.

But we must also prioritize programs that bolster resilience. These efforts can reassure and help students (and their families) who may be misidentifying their feelings based on popular rather than clinical understandings of depression and anxiety.

When it comes to setting students up for success in their professional and personal lives, resilience may be the most important skill we can encourage them to develop.

Holmes-Sullivan, the president of Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, has maintained a private clinical psychology and consulting practice for more than three decades.

This story about college students and resilience was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s newsletter.

A Wisconsin redo election signals growing ballot scrutiny in US

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:24:20 +0000

For 32 years, Lorine Walters ran elections in what is known as “Wisconsin’s Last Wilderness.” It was pretty routine until last spring, when an election rarity occurred — in a race in which she was a candidate.

“You can’t make this stuff up,” she said.

Walters, then the town clerk in Presque Isle in Vilas County, had challenged incumbent John MacLean for town chair. She won by one vote, 242 to 241. A recount confirmed the result. But MacLean sued Walters and other election officials. A judge, finding mistakes were made, ordered a new election.

The remedial election was held in November. MacLean won — after what Walters described as a bruising second campaign.

“This was an excruciating process, the whole thing,” said Walters, 76, who was found to be partly at fault. “It’s taken me a while to bounce back from it. It was a very difficult time.”

At least four times in 2023, Wisconsin Watch found, judges in Wisconsin and three other states took the extraordinary step of ordering new elections after finding irregularities in the original balloting in local races decided by thin margins.

“It’s probably not quite as rare as winning the Powerball lottery, but it’s pretty close,” said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. “It’s a very high bar for ordering a redo of an election.”

Becker and other election experts said they are not aware of any annual counts of past court-ordered elections. But they said they see the four examples as evidence of increased scrutiny on the administration of elections and more willingness by candidates to contest close results in court.

The scrutiny comes as election offices struggle with staff turnover and threats heading toward the 2024 presidential vote.

“All of this is a reminder that the pressure that we put on (election officials) to execute this flawless election, when often we haven’t given them the tools and the people to do it, is extraordinary,” said Jennifer Morrell, CEO of The Elections Group, a nonpartisan group that advises election officials.

Single-vote margin in Wisconsin case

In the April election in Presque Isle, 100 miles north of Wausau, 76% of the town’s 649 registered voters cast ballots — the highest percentage of any town in the county.

In August, Vilas County Circuit Judge Martha Milanowski threw out the result and ordered a do-over election after finding that two absentee ballots were cast illegally. One was by a voter in Illinois who had voted in the past in Wisconsin but hadn’t registered in Wisconsin for the spring election. The proper procedure wasn’t followed for the other: Walters had sent that voter a ballot before receiving his request by mail.

Walters said she didn’t realize the part-time Illinois resident wasn’t properly registered. She said she sent the other voter an absentee ballot because she had been in contact with him and didn’t realize she should not have sent it before receiving his official request by mail.

Milanowski also found that three absentee ballot envelopes didn’t include witness addresses, including one Walters had signed in her role as town clerk, and that the town’s Board of Canvassers didn’t follow the correct procedure for the recount, which requires reviewing absentee ballot envelopes.

“The irregularities and the stakes associated with this election and recount do seriously undermine the appearance of fairness,” the judge said.

In the Nov. 14 do-over, the only race on the ballot, MacLean defeated Walters, who was no longer the town clerk, 294 to 265. Turnout among registered voters was 84%, eight points higher than in April.

MacLean said more attention needs to be paid to whether part-time Wisconsin residents can legally vote in Wisconsin, particularly those who toggle their registrations between states. He also said that, based in part on the number of campaign mailings that were returned to him as undeliverable, the town’s voter rolls aren’t up to date. “So, it’s gotta be cleaned up,” he said.

A Dane County judge recently ruled that minor errors on absentee ballot envelopes can’t be used to disqualify a ballot under the federal Voting Rights Act, which conflicted with a Waukesha County judge’s 2022 decision that clerks can’t fill in missing information on absentee ballot envelopes.

Doug Poland, one of MacLean’s attorneys in the case, who has also represented Democratic voters challenging the state’s legislative maps, said what happened in Presque Isle reflects that municipal clerks, especially in small towns, need better resources and support, including more frequent training, to prevent mistakes. One solution could be, rather than every town and village clerk running a local election on their own, giving county clerks more authority to oversee local elections.

“What we discovered raises questions not about integrity, or honesty or security of our elections, but whether we are asking people to do more than they reasonably can be expected to do with the resources made available to them,” Poland told Wisconsin Watch.

Sam Liebert, Wisconsin director of All Voting is Local, a liberal group that works to reduce barriers to voting, criticized the decision at the time. In an interview, he said such orders could lead losing candidates to go to court in bad faith in search of judges who might be sympathetic to them.

“It can erode the faith in our democratic processes … and the institution of voting,” he said.

Judges don’t like to order new balloting because it “changes the election,” with a different set of voters casting ballots the second time, said Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell, chair of the elections committee of the Wisconsin County Clerks Association.

Errors like those made in Presque Isle “could happen even in a well-resourced office,” said Morrell, a former local elections official in Utah and Colorado. “Sometimes mistakes happen.”

Timeline in 2023 Presque Isle case

April 4: Lorine Walters defeats incumbent John MacLean, 242 to 241, in the election for town chairman in Presque Isle, 100 miles north of Wausau. Walters was the town clerk at the time. Of the town’s 649 registered voters, 492, or 76%, cast ballots — the highest percentage of any town in Vilas County. A recount confirmed the result.

April 19: MacLean challenges the result by suing the town’s election officials, including Walters, in Vilas County Circuit Court.

Aug. 31: Vilas County Circuit Judge Martha Milanowski invalidates the election results and orders a new election be held. She threw out two absentee ballots, saying they were cast illegally: One ballot was cast by a voter who hadn’t registered. The proper procedure wasn’t followed for the other: Walters had sent that voter a ballot before receiving his request by mail. Milanowski also found that three absentee ballots were improperly processed and that the town’s Board of Canvassers didn’t follow the correct procedure for the recount, which requires reviewing absentee ballot envelopes.

Nov. 14: In the redo election, MacLean defeats Walters by 29 votes, 294 to 265, in the only race on the ballot. Walters was no longer the town clerk. Turnout is 84%, eight points higher than in April.

Absentee ballot processing and illegal voting were issues in the other cases:

Louisiana: A state judge ordered a new election, and an appeals court on Dec. 12 affirmed the decision, after the Republican candidate for sheriff in Caddo Parish lost by one vote in the Nov. 18 balloting and sued. Two people illegally voted twice and four others who cast ballots weren’t eligible to vote.

Connecticut: A state judge on Nov. 1 ordered a redo of the September Democratic primary for mayor of Bridgeport, in which Mayor Joe Ganim defeated his challenger by 251 votes. Surveillance videos showed people stuffing multiple absentee ballots into outdoor collection boxes. Under Connecticut law, voters using a collection box must drop off their completed ballots themselves, or designate a certain person to do it for them. Ganim won the November general election and the Democratic primary redo on Tuesday.
Mississippi: A state judge on Dec. 27 ordered a partial new election for the position of tax assessor and collector in Pearl River County. One candidate defeated another by three votes, 2,915 to 2,912, in the Aug. 29 voting for the seat, where the incumbent didn’t seek reelection. The judge ordered a new election in two precincts after finding that two votes were cast illegally. He also found that one vote in another precinct should have been added for the losing candidate, who contested the initial result in court.

There’s also a pending trial. A New Jersey state judge is weighing whether to order a new election for a June primary election for an Atlantic City council seat that was decided by six votes. A ruling is expected Feb. 5.

The court-ordered remedial elections come in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, which led to widespread litigation in attempts to reverse Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.

“They’ve been abused, threatened and harassed for well over three years now, not because they did a bad job but because they somehow pulled off one of the most incredible democratic feats in American history,” Becker said of U.S. election workers. “They managed the highest turnout we’ve ever seen in the middle of a global pandemic. And that election has withstood the most scrutiny that any election in American history has ever had to withstand through multiple courts and every time it’s been upheld.”

Nevertheless, election officials are facing closer scrutiny while, in some cases, operating with high staff turnover. High turnover in local election offices in several battleground states “means these offices will be understaffed or staffed with inexperienced administrators” in the 2024 elections, according to a report by the Voting Rights Lab, a liberal national voting rights group. Monroe County, Indiana, is searching for an elections supervisor for the third time in less than a year, following a resignation, according to a local news report.

“Generally speaking, the offices I work with are understaffed and underfunded, consistently,” Morrell said.

McDonell said that “the job doesn’t pay that well to begin with and then you have threats on top of it.”

Threats to election workers led the U.S. Justice Department to form a task force to prosecute such cases.

Liebert said it’s not certain the string of 2023 do-over elections foreshadows a court-ordered do-over of the 2024 presidential vote, but he added: “I don’t think any tactics or tools are off the table.”

Becker and Morrell said that while court-ordered do-overs might be a strategy to contest results in smaller jurisdictions, where elections can be decided by a handful or a few dozen votes, the margins will be much larger in the presidential race.

“To find 10,000 ballots is impossible, it’s never happened,” Becker said.

At the same time, razor-thin election outcomes aren’t limited to towns or other small jurisdictions.

A 2020 Racine Unified School District referendum that’s expected to cost taxpayers $1 billion over 30 years was approved by five votes out of nearly 33,500 votes cast, 16,748 to 16,743. The Wisconsin Supreme Court unanimously ruled challengers don’t have a right to have ballots re-examined in court after the board of canvassers conducted a proper review.

Walters said the judge’s order in Presque Isle was the right decision. But she expects more court challenges of close elections because, since the 2020 presidential contest, even in small towns like Presque Isle, people are more partisan and politically polarized.

“With so much division, I think it’s going to get worse, not better,” she said.

2024 Wisconsin election calendar

Feb. 20: Spring primary: All county board seats, many school board offices, local judges and some municipal offices, including mayor and city council, if there are more than two candidates vying for a seat.

April 2: Spring election and presidential preference: In addition to the presidential primary, county, school board, judge and municipal offices plus two statewide ballot measures, both on elections: 1. Prohibits any level of government in the state from applying or accepting non-governmental funds or equipment for election administration. 2. Provides that only election officials designated by law may administer elections.

Aug. 13: Fall primary: Races include U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and the state Legislature, as well as district attorney, county executive, county clerk, register of deeds and treasurer, if there are two or more candidates running from the same party.

Nov. 5: General election: Races include president, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and the Legislature, as well as district attorney, county executive, county clerk, register of deeds and treasurer.

The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.

This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Midtown Global Market vendors adapt to changing landscape

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:19:52 +0000

Midtown Global Market will soon lose its tostones, cachapas, and of course, arepas, as its Venezuelan restaurant Arepa Bar is set to close at the end of January.

After immigrating to the U.S. from Venezuela in 2016, chef Soleil Ramirez worked for three years at The Lexington in St. Paul before opening the Twin Cities’ first authentic Venezuelan restaurant inside Midtown Global Market in early 2021. The business received overwhelmingly positive reviews and led to Ramirez opening a sister restaurant, Crasqui, in St. Paul last year.

Three years after opening, Ramirez announced on social media “with a heavy heart and a lot of good vibes and happiness” that her business was ending its run inside Midtown Global Market, citing safety concerns for her employees and customers as the main reason for her departure.

“We were dealing with a lot of things, and if something happened to one of my employees, I would never forgive myself,” Ramirez said in her announcement video. “Coming from a country with a lot of violence, I have seen many things, and I don’t want to go through that experience again.”

People will still be able to get a hold of Ramirez’ creations. She is transitioning Arepa Bar into a catering business — including online ordering and event opportunities — that will operate out of her second restaurant beginning in March.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Neighborhood Development Center, which owns the market, acknowledged the community will miss Arepa Bar, but said as restaurants come and go, the building continues to be a safe place for people to explore the world locally.

“Midtown Global Market has served as a small business incubator whose mission is to provide opportunities to aspiring entrepreneurs,” the statement read. “Arepa Bar and Soleil Ramirez have been a part of our dynamic community and we wish her the best as she continues her business journey at her new St. Paul restaurant, Crasqui.”

Overall crime in Minneapolis has decreased in the three years since Arepa Bar’s opening, including a roughly 56% drop in carjackings and a 44% decrease in shots fired calls, according to city data. However, that improvement has not been seen equally across the city.

There were 42 police incidents within a two-mile radius of Midtown Global Exchange last year, the vast majority of which being vehicle thefts, according to Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) data. While that number is not an outlier compared to other neighborhoods in the city, Midtown Phillips’s crime rate in several categories has not declined in the past three years.

Lake Street Council has allocated nearly $2 million from the city’s budget toward public safety efforts in the area, including efforts to hire a safety coordinator, build a community center, create murals, and improve lighting. However, according to Lake Street Council’s placemaking and activation manager Charise Canales, making large-scale safety improvements does not take away from the impact crime can have on individuals.

“We have to really be cognizant of lived experiences of businesses and employees,” Canales said. “Lake Street Council and the partners we work with are really committed to continuing to address public safety so we can support our businesses to stay and thrive in this corridor, because it’s so special. It’s such a special place where folks from all over the world can make a home.”

Crime — or the perception thereof — is just one challenge, though. Like downtown Minneapolis, the market has had a tough time adjusting to the rapid adoption of remote work, having lost a good chunk of regular customers who used to report to Allina Health’s nearby headquarters each weekday.

Lived experiences

Next door to Arepa Bar inside Midtown Global Market sits Pham’s Rice Bowl, where owner Trung Pham has been serving family recipes since the market’s opening 17 years ago.

As a restaurant serving comfort Asian cuisine, Pham’s business could not have been more different from Ramirez’ upscale Venezuelan menu — and that was the best part. Vendors inside Midtown are not competitors due to their unique offerings, which allows owners like Pham and Ramirez to speak every day and learn cooking techniques from one another.

“I love Soleil, she’s been a wonderful neighbor to me,” Pham said. “And she’s an awesome chef, and so it really creates that buzz. Whenever there’s a positive news about a restaurant that’s doing well, it directly impacts all of us.”

However, while Ramirez’ cooking stems from her cultural roots, Pham said comments like hers hurt the market that helped grow Arepa Bar into a success.

“All of us here are family-owned businesses, a lot of us put a lot of sweat and effort into making this work,” Pham said. “By one fell swoop, one statement … becomes the running theme of Midtown Global Market.”

Any major city is forced to grapple with crime, Pham said. In the nearly two decades he has been in Midtown, Pham has witnessed an occasional shoplift and one car break-in after he left his daughter’s backpack visible in his backseat, something Pham called “a crime of opportunity.”

“I’ve been here 17 years, if I didn’t feel safe here, I would not be here,” Pham said. “When there’s a portrayal of crime in South Minneapolis, we’re the face of it. We’re going to get the negative fallout from that.”

Pham walked over to Manny’s Tortas across the market, where owner Manuel Gonzalez prepared food for him. Gonzalez came to Lake Street more than 40 years ago and joins Pham as two of the four original restaurants inside the market.

Gonzalez sat alongside photos of celebrity chefs including Robert Irvin and Guy Fieri visiting his restaurant. Despite the market’s popularity and external success, Gonzalez said fear is a narrative Lake Street has been forced to fight for decades.

“Lake Street, a lot of people thought it’s dangerous,” Gonzalez said. “Now, with this coming, it’s going to be even worse.”

The roughly six-mile stretch of road has long been famous for its historic diversity and cultural inclusivity. However, Lake Street became scarred by soot and outrage due to its proximity to MPD’s former Third Precinct building.

The precinct had a years-long reputation for misconduct against minority communities and was where former officer Derek Chauvin was assigned when he murdered George Floyd in 2020. The building was razed in the following civil unrest.

Now, some of Minneapolis’ most vulnerable communities are forced to fight discrimination and hurtful narratives in addition to the already enormous responsibility of owning a business, Gonzalez said.

“This avenue is pretty unique, there’s a lot of entrepreneurs, especially immigrant entrepreneurs, that make this place work,” Gonzalez said. “They’re showing that this place is a destination.”

Rest of U.S. Pond Hockey Championships canceled due to warm weather

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:05:57 +0000

The U.S. Pond Hockey Championships Golden Weekend Jam is the latest Twin Cities winter event to be called off due to warm weather.

On Thursday, U.S. Pond Hockey Championships announced that after several days of competition on Lake Nokomis, the rest of the competition has been called off ahead of its Golden Weekend Jam.

While the recent cold snap had created good conditions on the lake, weather in the upper 30s and high humidity has since changed that, according to the announcement.

U.S. Pond Hockey Championships, Facebook

“We know so many of you have traveled and spent money to get here,” the announcement read.

“Nokomis is fully prepared, and our operations teams have gotten everything together for this event to happen, even over the last month of uncertainty. Unfortunately, the one thing we can’t control has rendered the surface ice unplayable as of today.”

Teams scheduled to play at the Golden Weekend Jam will have a guaranteed spot at the event next year, USPHC said.

The tournament isn’t the only upcoming Twin Cities event to be called off due to warm weather. The Crystal Winterlude and the Chilly Open golf tournament in Wayzata both recently announced cancelations.

MDH recommends screenings after congenital syphilis hits 40-year high

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 14:06:33 +0000

Officials in Minnesota are recommending increased screening for congenital syphilis after the state saw a spike in the disease.

According to a Thursday announcement from the Minnesota Department of Health, the state saw 29 cases of congenital syphilis in 2023, marking at least a 40-year high.

It also marks a dramatic spike from a decade ago. In 2013 and 2014, the state reported no cases of congenital syphilis.

Congenital syphilis occurs when a pregnant person passes on a syphilis infection to a fetus. The disease can cause miscarriages, stillbirths, premature birth and brain and nerve problems, according to MDH.

Of the 29 cases reported in Minnesota in 2023, three resulted in stillbirths.

In response to the increase, MDH now recommends pregnant people be screened for congenital syphilis “at least” three times: during the first trimester, at around 28 weeks of pregnancy and at delivery.

“Obstetrician-gynecologists will continue to be committed to ensuring that patients are screened for congenital syphilis so that they have the opportunity to be appropriately treated” said Dr. Elizabeth Slagle, chair of the Minnesota Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), in a statement.

“We support the updated MDH recommendations, which are in response to the increase in syphilis. The CDC recommends additional screening in areas that have high rates of syphilis, and the CDC treatment guidelines are endorsed by ACOG.”

MDH also emphasized that American Indian, Alaska Native, Black and Hispanic populations are disproportionately affected by syphilis. The department urged providers to consider syphilis screenings for all sexually active people.

Minnesota lawmaker looks to join other states in allowing physician-assisted suicide

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 11:37:11 +0000

Via Associated Press: Though the legislative session hasn’t started, the debate has already started on physician-assisted suicide in a House health committee.

H. Jiahong Pan with the Spokesman Recorder looks into reports from the Downtown Storefront Working Group and Minneapolis Foundation that call for buses to be moved off of Nicollet Mall. “Both reports say moving the buses off Nicollet Mall allows an opportunity to bring in retail, art, and green space opportunities, even in the winter, which they believe will bring in more people…”

ESPN details the heartbreak of the last three decades that Minnesota sports fans know all too well.

Christopher Vondracek with the Star Tribune reports a white farmer from northern Minnesota is suing the state alleging that the “emerging farmer” grant that provides funding for BIPOC, female and other underserved farmers, violated his civil rights.

Kare11’s Samantha Fischer reports the Princeton Fire Chief will resign just days after firefighters threatened to quit due to safety and leadership concerns.

MPR News’ Ellie Roth reports DFL state Rep. Brion Curran has pleaded guilty to a fourth-degree DWI charge.

Ashley Halbach with KSTP reports hospitalizations due to COVID-19, influenza, and RSV are declining. “COVID-19 hospitalizations are at the lowest level, of 4.47 people per 100,000 people, since late October 2023, though that rate is higher for folks aged 65 and older.”

Via KVVR: Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Moorhead will partner with Green Flower and begin offering cannabis programs for students.

Actor Timothée Chalamet visits Hibbing High School

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 03:35:49 +0000

The Hibbing High School Drama Department received a surprise visit from a Hollywood star on Thursday.

Actor Timothée Chalamet stopped by a rehearsal session for "The Girl in the White Pinafore," ahead of the show's performance at 4:30 p.m. Friday in the high school's auditorium.

The Wonka star is slated to portray Minnesota singer and songwriter Bob Dylan in an upcoming biopic, according to Esquire Magazine. Dylan attended Hibbing High School before attending the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

The entertainment magazine said the upcoming film, titled "A Complete Unknown," will feature Chalamet taking on all of the singing duties and play guitar. Production for the movie is expected to being in "early 2024", with no release date set yet.

Timothée Chalamet sits in on a reheasal at Hibbing High School on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024.

Courtesy of Flom Designs and Photography

A December 2023 report by Vulture Magazine states that Chalamet has access to a massive collection of unreleased early music by the "Like A Rolling Stone" singer, to prepare for the film.

Chalamet said in an interview on the Happy Sad Confused Podcast, "I feel like I'm holding onto gold or something."

The description of the Hibbing High School play is as follows:

"The Girl in the White Pinafore" tells the true story of a tragic school explosion in 1937 in East Texas that took the lives of over 300 people, mostly children. The play explores themes of grief, guilt, and how the resilience of the human spirit in the face of insensible tragedy can work on healing wounds through generations, through space and time."

Check out photos of Chalamet's appearance at the school below, courtesy of Flom Designs and Photography.

Actor Timothée Chalamet took time taking photos and meeting with students, teachers and staff at a rehearsal at Hibbing High School on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024.

Courtesy of Flom Designs and Photography

View the 10 images of this gallery on the original article

Pop-up restaurant Gia opening permanent spot in southwest Minneapolis

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 03:02:12 +0000

Pop-up restaurant Gia is opening a permanent spot in southwest Minneapolis next month.

The restaurant is owned and operated by Chefs Jo Seddon and Lisa Wengler. It's expected to open on Feb. 6 at 5555 Xerxes Ave. S., next to Pizzeria Lola, which was formerly home to Cavé Vin, which closed in October.

Gia, which is taking reservations as of Thursday, had previously run a seasonal pop-up at Sovereign Winery on Lake Waconia. It has also operated a spot at Cavé Vin.

Its menu focuses on authentic Italian food with an emphasis on high quality, seasonal produce.

"Our fundamental belief is that high-quality ingredients, simply but perfectly prepared, are the route to culinary happiness… Beautiful broccolini, handfuls of lacinato kale, garden fresh herbs, tomatoes, vegetables and more," Gia's website states.

"We practice ethical sourcing and support sustainable farming methods — looking after our environment and local farmers. where possible, we buy local and organic."

Instagram

Its menu features small, sharing, personal and dessert plates that will change weekly. It also has gluten free, vegetarian and vegan options for guests. Some of the sample menu items include housemade rosemary focaccia, bruschetta, risotto, lamb rib chops, red wine poached pear and more.

It will also provide a majority old-world wine list and cocktails.

Seddon is originally from London and worked as a hospital physician for 12 years. She decided in 2015 to go to culinary school and eventually worked in multiple Michelin-starred restaurants in London, such as Chez Bruce, Spring, Bar Boulud and Cafe Murano.

Seddon then worked at The River Café, an iconic Italian restaurant in west London, which is where she found her passion for "simple, seasonal, authentic and excellent" Italian grub.

After she moved to the United States, Seddon was hired by James Beard Award-winning Chef Gavin Kaysen, of Spoon and Stable, Mara, and Demi. She was part of the team that opened Bellecour in Wayzata.

Wengler is a Minnesota native and who got her start working at Cocoa & Fig Bakery in Shakopee before she applied to culinary school. She eventually joined the staff at Bellecour before it shuttered during the onset of the pandemic.

Seddon and Wengler have worked together since 2020, according to Gia's website.

Golfweek lists 4 Minnesota resort courses among 200 best in US

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 02:11:04 +0000

Golfweek's annual ranking of the best 200 resort courses in the U.S. includes four from Minnesota.

The publication released its updated rankings, with the highest pick in Minnesota being The Quarry at Giants Ridge in Biwabik, Minnesota (T-32nd overall). Giants Ridge made the list twice, with its Legend course tied for 104th overall.

The other two that make the list include The Classic at Madden's on Gull Lake in Brainerd (T-67) and The Wilderness at Fortune Bay in Tower, Minnesota (T-84).

The Legend at Giant's Ridge.

Pictures: Kevin Fee, Fee Films LLC.

Golfweek also listed the best public and private courses by state. In Minnesota, the best public course in 2024 is also The Quarry at Giants Ridge and the best private course is Interlachen in Edina.

Here's a list of the top 10 public courses in Minnesota, followed by the top 10 private:

Public

Giants Ridge (Quarry) in Biwabik
Breezy Point Resort (Deacon's Lodge) in Brainerd
Wilderness at Fortune Bay in Tower
Madden's on Gull Lake in Brainerd
Giants Ridge (Legend) in Biwabik
Chaska Town Course in Chaska
Meadows at Mystic Lake in Prior Lake
Rush Creek in Maple Grove
StoneRidge in Stillwater
The Wilds in Prior Lake

(Note: We're not sure why Golfweek ranked Breezy Point Resort the second best public golf course in Minnesota but chose not to include it in its Top 200 Resort Golf Courses).

The Legend at Giant's Ridge.

Pictures: Kevin Fee, Fee Films LLC

Private

Interlachen in Edina
Spring Hill in Orono
Minikahda Club in Minneapolis
White Bear Yacht Club in White Bear Lake
Hazeltine National in Chaska
Windsong Farm in Independence
Somerset in Mendota Heights
Northland in Duluth
Minneapolis GC in St. Louis Park
Golden Valley CC in Golden Valley

Additionally, four Minnesota course made Golfweek's top 200 rankings of best classic golf courses. To qualify, the courses needed to be built before 1960.

Interlachen ranked the highest, tied for 62nd overall, followed by White Bear Lake Yacht Club (T-77), Minikahda Club (T-77) and Northland (162).

Caribou Coffee on St. Paul's Grand Avenue closes after 30 years

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 23:34:16 +0000

Caribou Coffee at the corner of Grand Avenue and Oxford Street in St. Paul recently closed its doors after decades in business.

"Thank you to our wonderful community for loving our store and the teams who ran it for the past 30 years," an announcement on the door reads. "We will miss you all!"

The closure at 1055 Grand Avenue comes on the heels of another Caribou Coffee closure in the neighborhood. The Lincoln Commons strip mall location, near the intersection Grand and Snelling avenues, shuttered in November.

Caribou Coffee's recent closure is the latest blow to Grand Avenue, where the departure of longtime businesses is coming at a faster clip.

The former Caribou Coffee at 1055 Grand Avenue in St. Paul. Photo by Christine Schuster | Bring Me The News.

Pottery Barn and Salut Bar Americain both closed permanently in recent weeks. Another prominent fixture of the historic avenue, Tavern of Grand, announced plans to close in June after 35 years in business.

Caribou Coffee, however, can still be found on Grand Avenue and elsewhere in the neighborhood.

Locations remain open at 757 Grand Avenue, at the intersection of Randolph and Fairview avenues and at 2340 West 7th Street.

Biden visits the Twin Ports to promote Blatnik Bridge rebuild money

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:57:30 +0000

Christa Lawler and Jana Hollingsworth at the Star Tribune are tracking President Joe Biden’s visit to the Blatnik Bridge, a high-traffic connector between Duluth and Superior, to tout a $1 billion federal grant to rebuild the structure.

Allen Henry at WCCO reports the first licensed Somali-owned day care in the state of Minnesota was damaged in a south Minneapolis fire on Wednesday morning.

Via KSTP: KS95 announced Thursday morning that Larry “Moon” Thompson, who spent 17 years on the station’s “Moon and Staci Show” in the afternoon, died overnight from health complications related to multiple sclerosis.

Walker Orenstein at the Star Tribune reports Xcel Energy’s fourth-quarter profits rose more than 7%, income the Minneapolis-based company said was tamped down because of $72 million in costs from hundreds of retirements and job cuts.

Corin Hoggard at FOX 9 reports state Sen. John Marty has opposed any gambling expansion in Minnesota, pointing to problems with addiction and suicide as well as corrupting sports. But his opposition now includes some wiggle room.

Mathew Holding Eagle III at MPR News reports in the coming weeks, Electric Nation will deliver 10 Ford F-150 Lightning pickup trucks, and a Ford Mustang Mach E, all EVs, to six tribal fleets across the Red Lake Nation in Minnesota and the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota.

Jay Boller at Racket interviews Russell Nicolet, the New Billboard King of the Upper Midwest.

Minnesota restaurant openings & closings for January 2024

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:37:44 +0000

The New Year kicked off with many restaurant openings in the Twin Cities metro and beyond.

Here's the latest restaurant happenings for the month of January.

Openings

Auntie Anne's & Jamba Juice (2111 County Road 42 West, Burnsville): Minnesota's first Auntie Anne's and Jamba combined drive-thru restaurant opened in Burnsville this month. Read more here.

Andiamo Italian Ristorante (80 Snelling Avenue, St. Paul): The Twin Cities' third Andiamo Italian Ristorante opened this month in St. Paul's former Buffalo Wing Wings restaurant. Read more here.

Courtesy of Andiamo Italian Ristorante.

Bûcheron (4257 Nicollet Avenue, Minneapolis): Chef Adam Ritter, formerly chef de cuisine at Demi, has partnered with his wife, Jeanie Janas, to open this elevated neighborhood restaurant. Bûcheron, which translates to "lumberjack" in French, promises a technique-driven menu showcasing seasonal ingredients in a cozy, historic setting.

Dario (323 North Washington Avenue, Minneapolis): Shareable plates and cocktails are the focus of this new restaurant from Chef Joe Rolle. Rolle's extensive resume in the North Loop includes helping to found the Bachelor Farmer and time at the Dakota Jazz Club and Martina. Read more here.

Mr. Paul's Po' Boys and Jams (501 30th Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis): Chef Tommy Begnaud, of Mr. Paul's Supper Club in Edina, is taking his beloved New Orleans sandwiches to the Market at Malcolm Yards food hall. A late-January opening is expected.

Ono Hawaiian Plates (2015 East 24th Street, Minneapolis): Hawaiian comfort food is the newest addition to longtime Asian market United Noodles. Owned and operated by husband-and-wife duo Warren Seta and Jess Kelley, Ono Hawaiian Plates serves classic plate lunches, barbecue meats, ahi poke bowls and other casual dishes with traditional Hawaiian flavors. Read more here.

Parcelle (233 East Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis): A new Northeast neighborhood café serving organic breakfasts, lunches, smoothies and more is now open. Parcelle is the latest venture from Kamal Mohamed, who also owns the nearby restaurant StepChld and the peanut butter sandwich brand Gallant Tiger. Read more here.

Revival Smoked Meats (501 30th Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis): Southern-style brisket, smoked ribs, slow-smoked pork shoulder and more are on the menu inside the Market at Malcolm Yards Food Hall. Revival Smoked Meats, from the team behind the Revival fried chicken restaurants, is one of the food hall's newest vendors. Read more here.

Scratch Pizzeria (3450 Pilot Knob Road, Eagan): A new dine-in pizzeria, which also serves salads, pasta, sandwiches, Italian desserts and more, is now open. The restaurant is the latest venture from Cooper's Tap House owner Randall Cooper. Read more here.

Smorgie's (150 Smith Avenue North, St. Paul): Smorgie's officially opens Monday, Jan. 29 in the new downtown development just across from the Xcel Energy Center. Affordable comfort food and craft cocktails are the focus.

Tono Pizzeria + Cheesesteaks (7767 Main Street, Maple Grove): The Twin Cities' sixth Tono Pizzeria + Cheesesteaks opened this month. The fast-casual, brick-oven pizzeria and cheesesteak restaurant's next opening is expected in Inver Grove Heights. Read more here.

Wingstop (12475 Riverdale Boulevard in Coon Rapids and 472 Hamline Avenue North in St. Paul): Two new Wingstop restaurants opened in the Twin Cities this month and a third new location is on the way. Read more here.

Closings

Arepa Bar (920 East Lake Street, Minneapolis): A treasured spot for empanadas, tequenos, deep-fried fish and, of course, arepas, departed Midtown Global Market this month. Chef Soleil Ramirez, who also owns Crasqui Restaurant in St. Paul, said Arepa Bar will return as a catering business. Read more here.

First Draft (324 N. 6th. Ave., Minneapolis): Less than two months after announcing a rebrand, First Draft has announced it's closing at the end of the month, though is looking for a new location for its kitchen, Burnt Chicken. Read more here.

Roasted Bliss (1310 5th Place NW, Rochester): The coffee shop and bakery abruptly closed, citing lack of staff and rising costs. Read more here.

Salut Bar Americain (917 Grand Ave., St. Paul): The French-American bistro is the latest business to close its doors on St. Paul's Grand Avenue, which received an even bigger blow last week when Tavern on Grand announced it'll close this summer. Read more here.

Vintage Italian Pizza (1830 East 8th Street and 3901 Grand Avenue in Duluth): The new year began without two classic pizza shops in Duluth. Vintage Italian Pizza's founding location in Superior, Wisconsin is the only remaining location. Read more here.